Secret of the Silver Bow V: Dark Side of the Moon
by To Thine Own Self Be True101
Summary: Shamrock is stressed Ai is driving him crazy he cant sort through his own emotions Grace is strangely distant Orion is just trying hard to be the father Shamrock didn't ask for He Lilly & Grace manage to escape for a while but something is wrong the new moon, he hates them but he could always sense the moon was there now its not. Follow him on his quest to the dark side of the moon
1. Incorrect

**SURPRISE! I know where I am going with this now, I know what has to happen so here we are, Part V of Shamrock's story. Its also early, lets think of it as an early birthday present for Arabella. **

**HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY ARABELLA!  
**

* * *

Secret of the Silver Bow Part V: Dark Side of the Moon

One

_Secret of the Silver Bow Fun Fact 7: The name Shamrock was made up off the top of my head in July of Last year while sitting in the car waiting for my sister to get out of her gymnastics class. It was only going to be a temporary name until I found one that worked better but when I finally found a Greek name I liked I couldn't bring myself to change it. _

Key – _The Wild_

_**The Conscious**_

_**The Instinct**_

_Shamrock_

Incorrect

_Half a league, half a league,  
__Half a league onward,  
All in the valley of Death  
__Rode the six hundred.  
"Forward, the Light Brigade!  
"Charge for the guns!" he said:  
Into the valley of Death  
__Rode the six hundred._

Shamrock

Okay, remember when I said. "I knew that everything would be alright"? I have never been that wrong before! Things couldn't have been worse. Sure they started out okay, but by May I was tired of it and By June I was ready to lose my mind.

Aikatrina, had been dominating the hunt, we didn't travel as much anymore and we had to try to be quite because she slept all the time! I spent a majority of my time in my tent, my Mom spent days with Aikatrina and nights driving the moon, which was getting to be a pain because even immortals need sleep sometimes. During the night Orion watched her which also got to be a pain because he was up all day to.

Aikatrina's crib was in Orion's tent which brings me to another topic. My mom and Orion didn't share a tent. Orion slept in his own tent on the other side of camp. Don't most parents share a room at the very least? Mine didn't even share that. They both seemed perfectly fine with it, Orion was comfortable in his tent my mom in hers. Maybe this isn't weird to most people but it is to me!

Another thing was the PDA. There was none of it; Orion never once kissed my Mom in public, or anywhere that I could think of. I have never seen them so much as hug each other in the last few months, it's just weird. I guess it's nice that the awkwardness of PDA isn't there but it's still so, weird.

I also believe that Orion has never seen anything between my mother's collar bone and the bottom of her knee. Not even once. I honestly believe I have seen my mother where lower cut things then he has, which is weird. I would think that he would have seen the most of my mother, being my father and all. Grace tells me not to worry about it but it's kind of difficult not to think about. I think I've kissed Grace more than my mom has kissed Orion in the last hundred years. Which is to say once!

I also kind of hate my little sister, which both Lilly and Grace claim is not possible, that I have to love her because we're flesh and blood. In my opinion it is completely possible to hate your little sister, I do. She dominates my life. I spend time watching the baby when my mom is bathing or something, and the rest of it in my tent bored to death. We had hunted down everything in the area in two months; my mom has had to use immortal powers twice already to replenish what we've killed.

I know my mom and Orion are worried about Aikatrina what with that whole dying thing going on here but it was becoming too much for me, I had to get away. So I convinced Grace and Lilly to come to Camp Half-Blood with me, well I convinced Grace, Lilly wanted to go.

So we packed our things said good-bye to the hunt and made our way the three hundred miles to Camp. It was nice, just the three of us, our tent and Sirius, who was really Orion's hunting dog but he woke the baby so I had to take care of him.

The solstice rolled around and I thought about going to Olympus to see my mom but, I decided against it though because she would be busy, or at least too busy for me. It was a new moon that night so I convinced Grace to come down to the canoe lake with me. I had spent any time with just her in a long time and star gazing seemed to be the perfect opportunity.

"Shamrock?" She whispered, in the dark her red hair looked much darker than it was, her pale skin seemed to glow and the green in her eyes remained hidden behind a veil of darkness

"Yeah, Grace?" I muttered, turning to look at her, we were lying down on the dock, it was long after curfew but we didn't really care.

"Is it just me or have Percy and Annabeth been gone a while?" She frowned. I had noticed it somewhat to, but I had never really thought of them as missing.

"No they're probably just off on a quest." I said. She nodded. "We should get going, I think I hear the harpy's coming." We stood up and ran silently back to cabin eight. Noiselessly I opened the door. We crawled into our respective beds and in a few minutes I was the last one awake, in Lilly's bunk the one above mine, I could hear my sister muttering in her sleep about something.

I gazed out the window, tomorrow my mother would be back in the sky and I could finally get an Iris message to her. I guess I had a thing for IM-ing various gods at the worst times because all IM's to the Throne room had been cut off. How was I supposed to know Apollo was hitting on a wood nymph when I called? Anyway the point was I could get through to my mom, when the baby wasn't around.

With that somewhat happy thought I drifted off to sleep. Only to have the peace interrupted by a dream…

_I was back in the cave; the cloaked figure was pacing the room menacingly and glaring down at the boy on the floor. This time though you could see his face. His eyes were a piercing blue, his hair was black, curly and greasy, and he looked as though he'd been doing something for a very long time and it was finally drawing to a close, with a touch of slightly insane somewhere in there. _

_ "My lord, it is the solstice, the plan –"The boy crouched on the floor was cut off by the man. _

_ "I know, it will all fall into place, believe me, she has fallen into our trap. The boy is as good as dead." The man looked at a stalactite like he wanted nothing more than to destroy it._

_ "What is our trap?" The boy asked hesitantly. _

_ The man smiled demonically. "His greatest weakness." He turned and revealed a cage. A cage holding my mom. She was panting and glaring at the man. It was obvious that she had been in there a while, perhaps she didn't even make it to the solstice council. She stood up, Ichor dripping from a cut on her arm, the Ichor was more a bronze color then a gold color, warning sirens went off in the back of my head but I didn't know why. She looked bad, really bad as though the cage was leeching her power, her eyes were full of hate and if she had been able to I'm sure she would have choked the man to death but she couldn't, her hands were tied behind her back and whatever the cage was made of was immortal proof. She snarled at him and the man raised a leather whip. SNAP! The whip cracked, and my mom dropped to the floor of the cage, ichor dripping from a gash on her leg. _

I woke up in a cold sweat, I could hear the shower running behind the bathroom door, and Grace's bed was empty. I scrambled out of my bed and went over to the sink, and threw up. I heard the shower cut off abruptly, and the door opened. Grace was in a fluffy grey bathrobe, she ran over to me. I was breathing hard.

"Shamrock!" She said, turning on the sink to rinse the vomit out. "Are you okay?"

"G-grace, th-they've got my m-mom." I tried to inhale but it was like I couldn't I looked at Grace, she led me over to her bed and I sat down.

"Sham, calm down." She said, calmly. The door banged open and there was my sister.

"I brought – Oh gods, what's wrong with him?" Lilly dropped something but I neither cared nor possessed the ability to turn and look.

"He's having a panic attack, Lilly get me a warm, damp towel. Shamrock," Grace made me look at her. "Calm down." I felt tears rolling down my face, and the panic in my chest was making it hard to breath. Grace wiped my mouth with the damp cloth and Lilly handed me a glass of water, I drank a bit but I couldn't calm down. That freak had my mom and we were all just sitting here. Grace gave me a hug and held me until I could breathe again.

I took a few deep breaths then pulled away and looked at her. "Shamrock." Grace's voice was steady and calm. "Tell us who's got your mam."

"I don't kn-know exactly b-but she's in a cage and everything." I told them about the dream.

"Shamrock, nothing has happened to your mother, you were just up late, and you were tired, she's fine. She and the hunters will be here in three days just enjoy yourself and you'll be alright." Grace's voice was so soothing, that almost all of me believed her. Almost all…

_**We really ought to check this one out. **_

_In a few days the hunt, my mom and Orion will be here. _

_**Why do you still call him Orion?**_

_Gods ADHD much, seriously I just had a panic attack and you just told me I should check this out and now you ask me why I still call my dad Orion? Really?_

_**Yes really**_

_It's complicated, and you're unusually talkative. It's usually Wild or Conscious._

_**Now who's being ADHD?**_

_Point made, now answer the question. _

_**Fine, I'm just stressed out!**_

_Why?_

_**Um, you just had a panic attack and your mom could be missing. Duh.**_

_You sound like my sister, and Grace makes a valid point, she's not missing, just give it a few days._

Someone snapped in front of my face and I was jerked out of my thoughts. I looked around, I was still sitting on Grace's bed.

"What?" I asked.

"I said, I'm going to get dressed, are you going to be okay?" She asked. I nodded. "Okay I'll be right back." She was back very quickly too, almost like she was worried I might have another panic attack. She was wearing her silver hunting T-shirt and a pair of jeans, like me she refused to wear the camp clothes, they made me look like a walking piece of Candy. Grace's red hair was braided and she had the pin I'd given her for her birthday on the front of her t-shirt, it was a shamrock pin.

"What now?" I asked.

"Well I dropped our breakfast when I walked into the scene of you hyper ventilating on Grace's bed." She grumbled.

"Someone's grumpy this morning." I said.

"Shut up!" She stormed out of the cabin, slamming the door behind her. I glanced at Grace.

"What's her problem?" I asked.

"Well you did just have a panic attack, and for most people that's terrifying to see." Grace pointed out.

"Why wasn't it terrifying for you?" I Asked.

She shrugged. "Shamrock I grew up with thirteen brothers and sisters, we had the occasional panic attack, it was usually Erin, she got scared really easily, and America was a big new place, she had an attack at least once a month. Never on that scale though."

"You were so calm though, and Lilly she freaked out." She sat down next to me and I noticed I was still sitting on her bed.

"Well I've been through a lot and though that was just about the worst panic Attack I've ever witnessed that wasn't the worst thing I've ever witnessed." She looked at her feet and I got the feeling that she wasn't talking about anything to do with her family, or me, that it was something much deeper, much more monstrous then that, so I decided to leave it alone for now. Besides, it was capture the flag night.

Since there weren't enough Hunters to go Hunters verses Campers they spilt me and the girls up. Grace and Lilly were with, Hermes' Aphrodite, Hephaestus, and Dionysus, while I was tossed in with Apollo, Ares, Athena and the others. First though we had to make it through the rest of the day. Our first activity was archery which I decided to ditch. I didn't need the practice, so instead I spent the first hour in the forest hunting and talking Oak, the little wood nymph and I had become good friends.

Apparently Oak was the youngest wood nymph so we had a chaperone fallowing her everywhere I guess she was maybe nine but she said in fact she was fifty human years old which made her about as mature as a nine year old. The conch horn sounded signaling the end of the first class.

I actually decided to go to Sword fighting; I noticed it was a blonde Hermes boy teaching instead of Percy. I grabbed my sword and strode over to him, he looked so familiar, one long scar running from under his eye to his chin.

"Luke?" I Asked.

"Hello Shamrock, I didn't know the hunt was here." His eyes darted around looking for someone.

"They're not; it's just me, Lilly and Grace. Why are you here? You're dead." I frowned.

HE chuckled. "That's sensitive. I'm just the temp, they couldn't get someone else to do it Clarisse and the Ares cabin are all on strike for some reason, Chiron's got archery and I was the last person left."

"Where's Percy?" I raised my eyebrows.

"I don't know they never told me." He said. "Now go get in line."

Remind me never to choose Grace as my partner; she flattened me in a second, probably because I was afraid of hurting her. After Sword fighting was lunch, which meant I had too much time to think.

I ate a sandwich then slunk back to my cabin, Grace was sitting on her bed reading her book. She smiled up at me. I gave her a weak smile back.

"Are you okay?" She asked. I didn't say anything at first, I admit it, and I was reluctant to tell her what the problem was. She sat up and patted the spot next to her. "Come here." I sat next to her. "Now what's wrong, you've been off all day."

"I'm worried about my mom. What if I lose her, Grace, I can't lose her, I've only just gotten her back." I muttered.

"Shamrock, look at me." She made me look her in the eye. "You are going to be fine, in a few days she'll be here, with your dad and your sister." I know she was talking to me like a little kid but I was okay with that, mostly because Apollo never did anything, and because her tone of voice was comforting. Lilly walked in, Nico trailing somewhat behind her and stopping in the doorway.

"Are you alright?" Lilly asked. I nodded, I know she didn't believe me but, I think my panic attack earlier had really freaked her out so she just believed me.

"Nico," I said, trying to make polite conversation. "Are you going to play capture the flag?"

"If any team will take me." His answer was brief and very Nico.

"We'll take you." Lilly piped up.

"We will?" Grace raised her eyebrows; she didn't really like Nico for some reason. I wasn't his biggest fan either but I could put up with him.

"We will." Lilly said. "You can come in Nico." Nico stepped in, his black skinny jeans were ripped, chains hanging from them, his shirt was faded but it said something about a band that Thalia liked, Green Day, and his aviator jacket, which seemed like it was getting too tight for him, but he seemed to be attached to it.

"Hey Sham, I heard about your panic attack." He said.

"Yeah." I glowered at him.

"Are you okay?" He sneered.

"Fine." I sneered back.

"Hey," Lilly said like we were bad dogs. "Be good."

Grace giggled. "Aw, look at you two, getting all territorial"

"I'm not territorial." I snapped.

"Really then what if I did this?" Grace picked up the pillow from my bed and handed it to Nico. I growled. "See, someone's getting territorial."

"Fine, maybe just a little bit, but I don't want him near me, he smells like death." I grumped.

"Hey!" Nico yelled. "At least I don't fall in love with that!" He gestured towards Grace and I had it, I lunged at him.

Grace

Grace saw him begin to changed midair and reached for his collar, she grabbed on to the collar and he hit the ground and yelped. Lilly stood up and stood between the two boys.

"Hey, boys, stop that!" She said firmly. Shamrock morphed back and Nico sneered, Shamrock looked at her his silver eyes pleading with her.

"Nice try Shamrock, but I have taken care of small children I do not give into the puppy eyes. Sit." She said, he sat.

Shamrock

"Nico lets get a few things strait, A)Grace is not a _that_ she is a _girl_ B) We are not in love C) If you ever come in here again I will sink my teeth into your neck." I growled.

"No, Shamrock you won't." Grace's voice was firm, her accent seemed to thicken when she was aggravated. It was kind of cute. Wait, cute? When was anything about Grace _cute_? Well there was her nose, and how she got more freckles when she was angry, and then there was the way she laughed,

_**Stop it! We can't afford to think about that kind of thing!**_

_Hey we've been over this there is no-_

_**We, yeah, yeah I know there is me and there is a you, there is no we.**_

_Hey, you're getting pretty good at this whole snarky thing. _

_**Well duh, we share a body. Remember.**_

_Okay that's enough. _

"Okay Nico, why don't you leave, before Shamrock gets angry again, Shamrock why don't you take a nap?" Lilly said.

"Why do I need a nap?" I challenged.

"You are tired; I know you didn't sleep well last night." She said.

"How do you know that?" I snapped.

"Yeah, Shamrock you need a nap, you are just as fussy as Aikatrina, when you're tired don't deny it." Grace said.

"But, I don't want to sleep." I said.

"Shamrock, I'll stay here, you won't have another nightmare. Just sleep." Grace said, I sighed, got up and crawled into my own bed. Grace was right I didn't have a nightmare; I did have a dream though.

"_Apollo?" A small seven year old me said. My eyes were still that greenish color, my auburn hair badly needed to be cut and I wasn't much taller then a four year old. _

"_Yeah kiddo?" Apollo turned around on the couch._

"_Can't sleep." Seven year old me muttered. _

"_Come here." Apollo motioned for me to come over to where he was. His blonde hair was perfectly trimmed and his blue eyes told the seven year old me that I wasn't to get out of bed again._

"_Story?" I Asked. _

"_Okay fine, which one?" He sighed. _

_I had a glint in my eyes, that even then I could clearly tell was somewhat evil. "Orion." _

_Apollo sighed and began the story, when he finished I looked up at him innocently. "What?" _

"_Why did you kill him?" I wondered._

"_Because, no one hurts my sister." He said. _

"_Orion didn't hurt your sister." I pointed out. _

"_Yeah, yeah I know but he would have." Apollo picked me up and carried me up the stairs. My bed was small and the blankets looked like and animal had recently slept there, a comfortable little den made of them. _

"_Apollo." I muttered, it was clear seven year old me was starting to fall asleep. _

"_Yeah?" Apollo lay me down in the middle of the den, and I wiggled down into it. _

"_Santa Claus is evil." I was asleep now. _

"_Sure he is kid, your mom thought the same thing." Apollo ruffled my hair and left. _

I yawned and stretched. Grace looked up from her book. "Oh good your awake, it's almost time for capture the flag.

"Grace!" I was shocked she'd let me sleep that long. "You let me sleep for four hours?"

"Yes I did, did you know you talk in your sleep? You were muttering something about an evil Santa Claus." Grace stood up.

"Evil Santa Claus?" I rolled out of bed, and began to make the bed.

"Yeah, I don't blame you, my sister, Erin, thought so too. In fact, Santa Claus was something that used to give her a panic attack." Grace nodded matter-of-factly

"I didn't know the story of Santa Claus was around then." I frowned.

"It was somewhat. It was really just more of a story to tell around Christmas time. Erin didn't like the thought of someone in our house." Grace said.

"Erin? That's not and Irish name, your Enye, your brother is Sean, and you have another brother named Dickon but Erin. You hear that name all the time." I said.

She sighed. "Leave it to you to latch on to the fact that I had a sister named Erin. Well actually in Gaelic it means Ireland. It really depends on how you spell it though E-r-i-n like my sister, that means Ireland but another much less common spelling is A-r-e-n which means eagle, it's also usually a boy's name and then A-a-r-o-n is Hebrew for mountain, also a boy's name most of the time. The most common spelling for a girl is E-r-i-n."

"How do you know so much about names?" I blinked at her, honestly it was a little freaky, I had never meant anyone who knew this much their own name much less other people's names.

"Shamrock in nearly a hundred and twenty years you learn things. A lot of things, even ones as random as the name meanings of your family members and their spelling variants." She pointed out. "Now make your bed it's time to go."

We walked out of the cabin at around four fifteen, the sun was high in the sky and naturally I scowled at it. Grace nudged me.

"At least try not to look so scowly all the time." She said.

"Scowly? Is that even a word?" I asked skeptically.

"I don't know if it is or if it isn't but at least try to look not so sullen all the time." She said.

"I don't look sullen; this is how I always look." I muttered.

"I know and that's exactly my problem. Couldn't you smile, just once for me?" She begged. This only made me scowl more. "Okay, so that's a no."

"Well I'm sorry someone woke me up." I said.

"Gods, you slept for four hours, how little did you sleep last night?" She rolled her eyes.

I crossed my arms. "Three hours."

"See," Grace said. "Together you've now slept seven!"

"Oh, sue me for being tired!" I snapped, as we approached the dining hall. Clarisse grabbed my arm.

"Quit bickering with each other, Shamrock we need to get a move on." Clarisse said.

"Bye, Sham." Grace walked over to join Lilly at the Athena table.

"Okay," Clarisse bent over a war map. "Sham, you are on offence with CH-"

"We're going to lose." I said calmly.

Clarisse's head snapped up. "Why do you think that?"

"Simple, they'll expect me to be on offence, which is all the more reason to have me guard the flag with defense." I shrugged. "Also, since they have Lilly _and_ Grace they are more likely to win, so we need to give them as many surprises as possible right?"

The whole table was silent for a minute; Clarisse brushed a piece of her stringing brown hair out of her face. "Okay Mr. Hunter-of-Artemis, what do you suggest we do?"

"Well since the most they know about me in this field is that I am a hunter of Artemis, and since they typically lose to the Hunters of Artemis they will focus on me, most likely using Grace and my sister against me, because well they know me best and can match my skill, then the others will go around and get the flag, assuming I am on offence, they will put Grace and Lilly on defense, when they find out I'm on offence they are going to try and change this but by then it will be too late because Clarisse, your half-sister, that one there," I pointed to the girl behind Clarisse.

"Josie." She supplied.

I nodded. "Josie will have taken the Ares campers that way." I point around the left side of the map. "and then Annabeth-"

"Annabeth isn't here right now, Sky, is filling in for her." Clarisse said.

"Okay, then Sky will take the Athena Cabin around to the right and then Will, you will take the Apollo campers and the other cabins forward, but make sure you all spread out so you can cover as much ground as possible. Clarisse, you, That blonde one, um…" I trailed off.

"Ila." She said.

"You, Ila, and I will be guarding the flag." I said.

"I don't see how that's all going to work. We can't hold off that many people." Clarisse shook her head.

"It will, because they'll have a bigger defense because they have Aphrodite, and you know how they play, so they're offence won't be very large." I said.

"Okay, you make a point, on that note, but that still leaves, Hermes, Hephaestus, and Dionysus." Clarisse said.

"Yes but there are nine Hephaestus kids, two Dionysus and about a dozen or so Hermes, that's relatively twenty five. You're right, okay so I want all the children of minor gods with us." I said. About another half dozen kids nodded in agreement. "Happy?"

Clarisse nodded. "Remind me to ask for you to be on my team again."

"Thank you, now why don't we suit up?" I smiled. Just a little bit demonically. I went over to the where the armor was and I noticed Grace strapping hers on. I went over and stood next to her, she looked up and jumped when she saw me.

"Gods Shamrock, do you have to do that?" She asked.

"Yes. I do." I chuckled strapping on my own armor.

"No, you don't. You are way to quiet some times." She chided.

"Yeah, well one of my pet peeves is loud noises." I told her.

She sighed exasperatedly. "Really Sham? Another one, I swear you have so many pet peeves I'm starting to lose count."

"Is it a crime to hate loud, annoying things?" I Asked.

"No, but you would have hated my family." She laughed.

"Why?" I wondered.

"Well with fourteen kids under one roof you can imagine how loud it gets. The quietest time was easily midnight, right, then every three hours or so you would wake up to one of the little ones having had a nightmare, or the baby needing to be fed." She explained.

I grimaced. "That would have been terrible. I need my sleep, how did you do it?"

She shrugged. "Well it was my life, I didn't really notice."

"I would notice, now I believe this is where we are expected to say good bye, and good luck." I said.

"Yeah, have fun Sham!" She waved and walked back over to stand next to my sister. Her tone of voice had made it clear. It. Was. On.

* * *

**Well there you have it Chapter one of Part V. Lets see how Shamrock handle's this hm? Well the next update will be on the 12th, which I believe is a Wednesday, so I hope I can keep your attention that long. **


	2. Snapped

**Okay I need to warn you that you will probably want to kill me at some point in this story, particularly if you like Nico, Lilly or Grace or for that matter Shamrock. **

**I will dedicate this to my friend James' little sister Rachel who broke her arm this week. I hope you feel better Rachel.  
**

* * *

Chapter 2

_Secret of the Silver Bow Fun Fact 8: This is the last chapter written in South Korea. It was written in Busan with My sister and her friend Kendall watching a movie in Korean. None of us knew what the movie was about so we made our own dialog._

Key – _The Wild_

**_The Conscious_**

**_The Instinct_**

_Shamrock_

Snapped

_"Forward, the Light Brigade!"  
Was there a man dismay'd?  
Not tho' the soldier knew  
Someone had blunder'd:  
Theirs not to make reply,  
Theirs not to reason why,  
Theirs but to do and die:  
Into the valley of Death  
Rode the six hundred._

Shamrock

The cool night breeze blew through my hair, the scent of the hunt on the wind, the scene of a hundred kids in battle armor and carrying weapons all under my command. I was happy. In fact, things like being in control of kids with weaponry is on 'The-Brief-List-Of-Things-That-Make-Shamrock-Happy' which might just make me slightly deranged.

I turned to the troops. "Don't just stand there; go do what we told you to do!" I shouted they muttered something and ran in their spate directions according to group. I turned to Clarisse and the demi-gods who were left here. "Well, let's go guard a flag." They nodded, and Clarisse turned to me.

"Hey punk!" She came over and poked me in the chest. "What makes you leader of this team?" I rolled my eyes.

"Ah, Clarisse, as thick as ever, you see, I am the one that came up with this plan. You are still our leader but you seemed to lack any drive to make them go to their places, so I took the liberty to ah, make them." I said.

"Good Punk, now get to your place, before the enemy arrives." She snarled, I decided it was best to listen to her and took my place next to Zeus' fist. It was the most common place to put the flag but that's what we were counting on. I sighed; it would likely be at least five minutes before anyone came near enough to us to spot out flag.

The flag was torn and blood red, the boars head on it seemed to snarl at you not to touch it. It was out in the open with Clarisse, me, and a dozen kids I didn't know that well guarding it. I know three of them were Iris kids, because their eyes never stayed the same color longer than two minutes, they were twins a boy and girl, the girl had blond hair, that seemed to change color too though I couldn't tell. The boy seemed to have a thing for changing his hair color to various shades of green and blue. I guess Iris isn't called the rainbow goddess for nothing.

I was pretty sure one other kid, the one who was asleep next to the flag was a Hypnos kid, he was hugging his spear like a teddy bear and muttering in his sleep about warm milk. We had been forced to carry him to where he was in front of the flag, and trust me he is much heavier than he looks. Our only hopes for him as far defense goes were that someone might trip over him, or impale themselves on his spear.

I knew one of them, Ebony was a Nyx child, she had thick dark hair that fell in dark ringlets to her shoulders, her eyes were so dark brown that they looked black. Her skin was as pale as ivory, I suppose she was rather beautiful to most, though she was only twelve she was taller than me and honestly the first thing I had thought was _vampire_. Though she didn't smell like one, the first archery lesson she had I had caught a whiff of her, she smelled not like death but of the night.

Another girl, Ariana, or Ari, was a daughter of Janus, she was always giving you choices. Right hand or left hand? Blue bubble gum or pink bubble gum? Her entire life seemed to be a choice, her cabin had two doors, one which led to the actual cabin one that lead to a dark room with an odd smell, and she liked to change them up. Even her eyes seemed to be choices, one was green and the other bright blue, as though she had two sides of her soul.

Myla, is a daughter of Eris, goddess of discord, and she seems to fit the profile perfectly, she dresses like one would expect from a trouble maker like her, all in black, with dark eyeliner, and deep red lipstick. She liked to cause trouble at camp and could give the Hermes kids a run for their money, and she's only one person.

The other six guys were brothers and one sister, sextuplets actually. Their mother was Charities, minor goddess of fertility and human creativity. I actually suspected that when I saw the symbols of female and male on their cabins and things like eggs, which are a pagan symbol of fertility. They're cabin was like an explosion of superstition fertility and creativity. The oldest one, Charley (Charlotte), I knew because she had tried to get me to go out with her.

I sighed and turned back around to Clarisse who was pacing back and forth menacingly. If I was our enemy and I saw her I would be pretty scared, but if I then looked at the others I think all my fears would disappear. The Charities kids were making daisy chains and Ari was chewing bubble gum, the Iris kids were talking about color and the Hypnos kid was asleep. We were in a pretty bad way if we got attacked by anyone.

Charley pulled something out of her massive bag. It was a sign that said "Make Love NOT War." She and her brothers burst into a chorus of "All You Need Is Love" and I knew we were doomed. The only two other kids who looked mildly threatening were me and Myla. Even Ebony with her dark hair, eyes, and clothes didn't look very menacing, she looked like she was happy night where she was and wouldn't leave it unless she had to.

I heard something rustle in the bushes. I turned and looked, I caught the scent of something on the wind, Lilac and Lotus blossoms. Grace, and the Hermes girls. I should have suspected that they would put Grace on offence, and Lilly on defense, what better way to shake a person then have them fight their sister. They tore out of the brush but froze when they saw Charley and her brothers.

Grace was the first to recover and launched herself up towards the rocks, the other three girls from the Hermes cabin targeted, me, Clarisse and Myla. I blocked the one who launched herself at me with her sword and soon we were engaged in combat. At one point she had me back against the rocks when grace came hopping down, our flag in her hand. Grace stopped, and smiled sweetly.

"Have fun Sham." She kissed my check and ran off laughing. I looked over at Ebony who had joined in the chorus of "All You Need Is Love" Okay, no help from that end. I looked at the girl who had me pinned.

"Sorry." I said and kicked her in the chest; I didn't have time to look back at her as I ran off in the direction of Grace, led by the scent of Lilacs.

Grace

_Maybe that was mean_, was Grace's thought as she ran towards the boarder, the flag in her hand. _You remember what Mam said, it's not polite to kiss and run. Besides that's the second time I've done that to the poor boy_. The last few months hadn't been any easier on her then they had on Shamrock. If anything they had been more stressful.

The constant fear that someone would find out about how she felt, Lady Artemis had given her until after the solstice to make a decision. The real problem was that she didn't feel like she belonged there. Most of the hunters would tolerate Shamrock but none of them genuinely liked him. Whereas Grace was his friend she honestly did enjoy spending time with him, he was a good person most of the time, when he wasn't putting himself and everyone else around him in danger.

This wasn't the time, she scolded herself, she had to focus on the task at hand, beat Shamrock's team then focus on the emotional stuff. Yes, that was a good plan.

Shamrock

I raced through the forest in the direction of the scent. I was close now, close enough to see Grace's red hair flying behind her. I smirked, I could see her, smell her, sense her, but I still couldn't _catch _her.

_Would it me power abusive of my power to use the power of the hunt? _

_In this case? Yes._

_Okay._

_You're going to use it anyway aren't you?_

_Yep._

I laughed, somewhat demonically and put on a burst of speed. I collided with Grace and we went tumbling, we rolled a couple of times before we fell into the river. Grace rolled off of me and sat up coughing and spluttering, all around looking quite panicked. I wasn't any better the shock of being in the river, even if it was only about six inches deep, was terrifying. I coughed up some water and sat up.

Grace was dripping wet, her red hair had come out of its braid and now clung to her head, her tunic stuck to her body and she looked mad. I crawled out of the river and lay on the bank. She crawled out after me, well limped really.

"Damage?" I asked.

"Um, I think I broke some ribs, I twisted my ankle and I'm going to be pretty bruised. Oh wait, you did all of that stuff to me!" She snapped, collapsing onto the nearest soft thing, me. I jumped more out of surprise then anything. "You?"

"Well the way impact of your body on to mine seems to suggest at least three broken ribs, and a dislocated shoulder." I muttered. She smirked, every small victory is worth something I guess.

"Why did you do that?" She asked.

"To catch and take down the enemy." I said.

"Shamrock?"

"Yeah?"

"You're an idiot."

"But I'm your idiot." I grinned.

"No you're the hunts idiot, I just happen to be in charge of you right now." She said.

"Keep dreaming. Now I don't suppose you would push my shoulder back into its socket would you?" I asked.

"Oh sure. 1,"She shoved, and I screamed. "2,3."

"I don't think that's how it works." I muttered.

"Well it surprised you and you weren't expecting the pain, therefor it worked." She smirked laying her head back on my chest. We lay there for a few more minutes, dripping wet.

"I don't suppose you'd get off?" I Asked.

"I would but I can't move without causing myself extreme pain." She muttered.

"So now what?" I ask.

"I spy something brown."

"A tree."

"You're good at this."

"I spy something green."

"That wood nymph." She sighed.

I looked down at her, she was much too close for comfort. I honestly considered pushing her off, but I didn't want to hurt her. So I let her stay.

"Did you know Ellis Islands hospital building is deteriorating and they aren't fixing it." She said sadly.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah." She sounded like she was about to cry, I guess even if she hated the place it still held some significance to her, she came through there twice.

"We'll go visit some time." I promised.

"Okay." She said.

We waited, and waited until finally the conch horn blew and someone came to find us, it was Lilly. She looked from me to Grace, raised an eyebrow and held out some ambrosia. We ate it gratefully and got up.

"Thank you." I said. "That was getting somewhat old."

"You're welcome." Lilly said.

"Hey Sham," Grace started. "Where's the moon?" I assumed she was asking me because I am really good at sensing things like this.

"Um, it's right," I turned and pointed. "there."

"Shamrock, you're wrong, that's where the moon should be. It's not there." She said. I noticed she was right. The night was perfectly clear but the moon was nowhere to be seen. I frowned.

"Well maybe it's still too small to see." Lilly shrugged, she was never as good with the moon stuff as I was but this ought to have sent up a million warning flags.

"No, it's not it should be a sliver yes, but we ought to be able to see it." I narrowed my eyes and but my lip. "Something is wrong."

"We should get back." Grace said. "Orion will be here in the morning." I nodded

I knew that Grace knew something was up, even in the last few months with Aikatrina my mom had never once forgotten her duties. This was strange and if I had to guess I would say that there was something being kept from me and I hate it when things of particular importance are kept from me.

We got back to camp where my team was celebrating but I didn't feel like taking part in the festivities. I was troubled.

Clarisse came over to me. "Hey Shamrock, what's wrong your plan worked?" I looked up at the sky. "Oh that, it's probably nothing, you don't ever have to worry unless the Mortals start noticing."

That night I crawled into bed only to be plagued by more dreams.

_The cavernous room was dark, the only source of light was from the cage where my mother was crumpled in the corner, bronze colored ichor flowing from her leg and arms. The color sent up warnings but I couldn't remember why_. _I tried to call out to her, but my voice didn't seem to work. She looked at me, I don't know if she knew I was there or not but she said. "Go! Don't listen get out of here!"_

My eyes snapped open it was broad daylight and I could hear wailing. Oh goody, my family's here! The door opened and I rolled out of bed. Orion looked somewhat disheveled and stressed. Good at least someone was in a worse state then me.

"Hi Shamrock." Somehow Orion still managed a smile, which ticked me off. The guy ought to be exhausted he's had night and day duty for nearly three days now!

"Hi." I scowled, Grace raised her eyebrows as if to say 'Really Sham, really?' I cocked one of mine as if to say 'Yes really.'

"Would you to not do those eye communication conversations please? It's unnerving." Orion said.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh well in that case, yes Grace really."

"He's your dad, must you scowl?" She asked.

"Yes I must." I retorted.

"Someone's grumpy." She observed.

"I didn't sleep well okay!" I snapped, she recoiled but recovered quickly.

"Anything you want to talk about?" She asked.

"No."

"You're aware that avoiding talking about the bad things you see or are a part of is a sign of P.T.S.D. right?"

"Yeah so."

"So, talk to someone, or see a doctor just don't keep it all to yourself." Grace said.

"Sham," Orion said. "she's right, it's a bad idea to keep it all to yourself."

"I don't care." I snarled. He backed off.

Orion didn't know the first thing about kids, and he really didn't know the first thing about teenagers, but he really, really didn't know the first thing about me. Which, all things considered, should send up a few red flags that he should read some parenting books.

As long as it wasn't that book my mom had read with all the creepy advice, I think it was _The Immortal Guide to Parenting _or maybe it was _The Olympian Deity's Guide to Being a Successfully Absent Parent_, whatever it was though it had some seriously creepy advice in it. Things like 'It's okay to watch your child sleep but not if the child knows your there.' Seriously creepy.

Another weird thing my mom had tried was the whole 'bonding thing' She tried it with Me and Lilly a few months ago but I'm not good at bonding and I know now where I got it from. The weirdest thing ever is to visit the shopping mall with an Olympian. Lilly seemed to enjoy spending time with mom, despite the fact that mom had no idea what she was doing. Lilly tried to explain the whole food court concept while I was in the bathroom and finally came up with the conclusion that we should just go home for lunch.

At least Orion hadn't tried anything like that. That didn't mean he didn't try, if anything he tried harder than my mom, or at least he wasn't a natural at some things. He honestly had tried to talk to me about my feelings about Grace which he should know by now I don't talk about them ever. I try to put them out of my mind, which works most of the time, but not when I talk about them.

Orion is very old fashioned, and the only parenting he's ever tried on me is the Ancient Greek style. Which I'm sure worked, in Ancient Greece, but in modern day America it won't do anything but get you laughed at. Occasionally he'll speak Greek to me which makes everything go over my head because, while I speak some Ancient Greek I don't understand his accent. I suppose it's from Crete but the strong accent makes him much harder to understand

So Orion looked at me as though expecting me to say something and I just shrugged it off and asked. "Where's mom?"

Orion shifted nervously from foot to foot. "Um she couldn't make it."

"Why?" I asked, looking up at him from my stance at 4'11 ½" (Every centimeter counts)

"Because she's busy." He said in a way that implied that this is where I should stop talking, but I didn't why should I?

"With what?" I asked.

"Olympian business." He said. I raised an eyebrow. "Would you not do that?"

Before either of us could say more the rest of the hunters crashed through the door. Thalia gave me a big hug and told me she knew it was me who had taken her charm bracelet, I told her it was on her bed. Ari hit me with a pillow, Sofia smiled shyly, Aideen, the only other Irish member of the hunt,(though for some reason she and Grace didn't get along) handed me a pin.

"You left this on your bed." She patted my shoulder and I looked at it, it was the one shaped like a crescent moon Grace had given me. There was a knock on the door, I answered.

"It's time for breakfast." Luke said.

"What's that?" Thalia pushed in front of me. "Move Sham, I'm luitent of Artemis. Just because you're her kid doesn't mean- LUKE CASTELLIAN!" She had realized Luke was there.

He rubbed the back of his head. "Hi."

"HI? HI! ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY IT HI!" She was full out screaming now.

"Um… How are you?" He tried weakly.

"Oh, gee," Thalia smiled, but it was more along the lines of demonic. "I don't know. I was only betrayed and now I have to see the face of the sick, son of a-"

"Okay Thalia come on in now!" I tried.

"Shut up Shamrock Orion Clover, just stay out of this!" She shouted at me. I stepped back, everyone was frozen watching them, even my little sister seemed transfixed on them.

"Grace." I heard Orion say "Take this." He came up, grabbed Thalia by the back of the tunic lifted her up, set her on the bed and slammed the door.

"What was that for?" Thalia shouted. "I had him right where I wanted him! I was about to punch him in the face!"

"Exactly, you can't do that here." Orion said calmly.

"Why not? He betrayed me now I'll return the favor!" She shouted.

"Thalia," Orion's voice was still calm. "you can't make a scene."

"Why not? Aikatrina won't remember anything, and he was asking for it, he was asking to be hit, he had some nerve showing up like that!" Thalia was still so angry that I could see bolts of electricity running over her Iris', along her arms and through her hair.

"Thalia you can just talk it out." Orion tried.

"Talk it out? Talk it out?" Thalia started laughing, not a nice sweet laugh but a cold, Luke-pushed-me-one-step-to-far kind of laugh, then she stopped. "He sure didn't think that when he poisoned my tree or betrayed us all!"

"Thalia you need to calm down." Orion said. Like I've mentioned before his skills with kids were about the same as my skills with girls.

"Don't tell me to calm down!" Thalia snapped and that's where things went wrong. The pushed him out of the way, opened the door, electrocuted Luke and stormed off.

"She needs to –" Orion started.

"I know calm down, but Orion this is one of those times when telling her to calm down does nothing. She snapped okay, that's it, when she snaps you can't do anything." I explained.

"He's right, she does that some times. It can be something small like a hairbrush that sets her off but the result if months of pent up anger, this was something much bigger just giver her time to cool off." Grace said.

"Just leave her." I said. Orion looked like he was debating whether to go after he or not. "Mom would leave her." That was it, he would leave her.

Whenever my mom left Orion in charge of the hunt we just told him what and when my mom would do things and he followed that. Some things I just told him to be aggravating others I was serious about. This was one of those times when I was being serious because I knew it would aggravate him.

Grace nodded. "Don't worry he's being honest."

None of us really felt like going to breakfast, but Grace volunteered to take care of my sister for the rest of the day. Which meant I was stuck with her or I could go train, so I went to training. It was strange, I hadn't been without a hunter since I first came to camp, and it was now boarder line strange.

I decided not to ditch archery, because I needed something to fill my morning with and there was nothing more calming then the satisfaction of beating 30 of my cousins in front of someone. That was satisfaction, I get it from my mother.

I sent the first arrow into the bulls-eye and turned to my cousins, then I turned back to the target, which was over a hundred meters away and shot back into the target, splitting the first arrow down the middle.

_The only thing I love more then beating 30 of my cousins is the satisfaction that I can shoot with more speed, shoot things farther away, with more velocity **and** accuracy then my cousins._

_We can tell. You're a bit ostentatious._

_I am not ostentatious I am merely showing them that I can shoot farther, faster, and more accurate then they can. Okay, yeah I'm ostentatious. _

_It's not a good thing you know._

_So?_

The conch horn sounded lunch, I opened my palm and the bow disappeared, I felt a pang of sorrow, Zoe Nightshade had taught me that trick. Zoe Nightshade also happened to be dead at the moment, she had been for years but that didn't stop me missing her. I shook it off and went to join the others for lunch.

My dad was seated in the middle of the table with my sister. The rest of the hunters were around the table looking somewhat confused, my mom always sat at the head of the table and Orion next to her. Now that my mother was gone Orion should be at the head of the table. I sat down next to him.

"You should be at the head of the table." I said.

"Why?" He asked.

"You are in charge of the hunt now, who else is going to sit there? Thalia? She's t her table sulking. Me? I'm not going to attract attention to myself, that's just asking to be shot. Lilly? She's – actually where is Lilly?" I asked.

"Talking to a friend, on the phone. Someone called Jake." Orion explained.

"Oh him. Well she's doing that. Grace? She has no place at the head of the table. So it's up to you." I told him.

"But like you said that's just asking for an attack." He pointed out.

"Yeah but let's think of it this way. Scar tissue is tougher than the soft unscarred flesh of us, and since you've been shot you have scar tissue." I said.

"Okay, but what about your little sister?" He asked.

"I'll take her." I offered. He raised an eyebrow but finally resided to give me Aikatrina.

**_You really want to see him make a fool of himself don't you?_**

_Would I want something like that?_

**_Yes._**

_Well I can hope he trips can't I?_

**_You are a terrible child._**

_Thank you._

Grace looked at me and raised her eyebrows. I smiled innocently, but I could tell she didn't buy it, she sighed and shook it off. Going back to her retched mashed potatoes, with cabbage and ham, I might not have _great_ taste in food but it's better than that.

I sighed and looked around. My mother was still nowhere in sight, she ought to have been here with Orion and the Hunt. I suppose she could've gotten held up again but, my mind flickered back to my dreams. The horrible pools of blood in the cave, her clothes sticking to her body, the blood dripping from the wounds. I shook it off trying not to think about it. The last thing I needed was to throw up all over my little sister. Grace saw something was wrong and gripped my hand supportively.

"She's fine." She whispered.

"I hope so." I muttered, suddenly not hungry any more. I just stared down at the meat on my plate, revolted at the thought of my mother being held captive. I decided that after lunch I would ask Orion where she was.

Lunch finally drew to a close. It seemed to take hours though for the conch shell to sound signaling for us to go back to our activities. Grace, Ari, and Emily took the baby and handed her to Orion. My feet felt like lead as I made my way down to the lake. Grace knew something was up and followed. I motioned for Orion to follow me to. He listened, probably just glad I was acknowledging him as part of my day to day life. Which wasn't the case but he can think what he wants.

I stopped a few inches from the water, the naiads were sitting in the bottom of the lake weaving and the grass was blowing in the light summer breeze, but I didn't care.

"Orion." I said, turning on him, trying to make him feel intimidated. Since I'm only 5'1 ½" I probably wasn't too frightening.

"Yeah Shamrock?" He asked, he was standing about six feet away from me and Grace was standing off to the side in the middle, possibly so she could intervene if she had to.

"I have a question for you." I said slowly. The atmosphere of the place was really very tense, every muscle in my body was ready for attack, so was Orion, I could see it, he was tense. Even Grace whose face was vacant of any emotion, this was probably one of the times when she decided and emotionless mask was best.

"Okay." Orion acknowledged. Looking at me, his eyes were probing me, probably deceiding if I was going to attack. "Ask away."

"Where's my mother?" An innocent enough question, but I knew as soon as Orion hesitated that he was slightly taken a back at this, and that the question wasn't exactly what he'd been expecting form Shamrock the Great.

"Grace." Orion said slowly, like I was an animal that couldn't be provoked. "Take Aikatrina." Grace was hesitant; she knew that if she listened to him that she couldn't stop a fight, she also knew if there was a fight the baby could get hurt. I could see the gears working away in her head, trying to decide whether to listen to this foreign invader. My mother was her mistress not him, technically she didn't have to listen, but it was her moral code that she gave into now. She slowly took Aikatrina from Orion then she backed off to a safe, six and a half foot distance.

"Orion." My voice was low, almost a growl that came from deep in my throat. I could feel the wolf side of me fighting to gain control.

"Shamrock, did your uncle tell you anything?" He asked slowly, this momentarily threw me off but I quickly recovered and took the battle stance.

"No. I haven't seen Apollo since you came along." I spat. Orion sighed; I could tell something was very wrong.

"Your uncle told me he would explain this to you. But I guess I have to do it." Orion sighed, one of those annoyed sighs people seem to save only fro when they talk about Apollo.

"What would he explain?" I snarled. Grace could see the tension building up between us. I knew that he was hiding something.

"Shamrock, I thought you knew, your mother never made the solstice." I felt my worst fears coming true.

"What?" I managed.

"The other gods have been looking for week now." He said.

"Y-you didn't tell me?" I felt my voice waver, more out of anger than anything else.

"Shamrock I'm so sorry I thought you knew, you seemed so calm about it." He was baffled.

"You didn't tell me!" I yelled, this had been evident, I had felt that harbinger for months and finally it had come, I snapped.

* * *

**Well there you have it. The major plot arch in chapter 2. Just wait until Chapter 3 Runaway**

**- ToThineOwnSelfBeTrue101  
**


	3. Runaway

**Here we are chapter 3 of this little escapade. I hope you enjoy.**

**This one is to all my readers and reviewers.  
**

* * *

Chapter 3

Key – _The Wild_

**_The Conscious_**

**_The Instinct_**

_Shamrock_

_Secret of the Silver Bow Fun Fact 9: Originally Shamrock was only going to have the Wild, but the idea for the other three developed when I realized that this was too big a job for one little voice._

Runaway

_Cannon to right of them,  
Cannon to left of them,  
Cannon in front of them  
Volley'd and thunder'd;  
Storm'd at with shot and shell,  
Boldly they rode and well,  
Into the jaws of Death,  
Into the mouth of Hell  
Rode the six hundred._

Shamrock

There is only one way to describe how I felt at that particular moment, _livid._ This guy seriously thought I already knew. If I had already known I wouldn't have been there, I would have been on my way to where ever my mother was. This was one of those times when I didn't listen to Instinct because I knew I would get a scolding.

"Shamrock calm down!" Orion insisted.

"Do not tell me to calm down! You honestly expect me to calm down! My mother has been kidnapped and you want me to _calm down? _You clearly know nothing about me!" I shouted.

"Shamrock, I know you are a lot like your mother, and you have a right to be angry, but you need to calm down and listen to me." He tried yet again. This guy really didn't know me.

"That is where you're wrong Orion, I am not only her child I am yours to I am my own person! And you should have just left me alone!" I stormed off back to my cabin, slammed the door behind me and sat down on the bed, where I started shaking violently.

Grace

She had never seen Shamrock get that angry before, though she had to hand it to Orion, he handled it pretty well, but he also had this coming. She looked down at Aikatrina who blinked up at her and got the eerie feeling they were both thinking the same thing.

"Orion!" Grace called, chasing after him.

"Yes Grace." Orion held his arms out expecting Aikatrina, reluctantly Grace handed her over.

"Orion!" She shouted again.

"Yes Grace." Orion sighed, she could see his patience wearing thin.

"Look, I've known Shamrock longer than just about anybody other than Lord Apollo and I can easily say that his temper flares up kind of a lot. I would know, and if I think about it I'm not that different from Shamrock." She said.

"Grace you're very different then Shamrock." Orion said.

"No I'm not.. We've both had our lives destroyed several times over, so believe me when I say that this is just a coping mechanism. He might blame you now but odds are he doesn't really. I'll talk to him, but until I do, please just keep your distance from him." She begged.

"Okay." Orion nodded.

"Thank you!" Grace called behind her as she ran off to find Shamrock.

Shamrock

When Grace came and found me I was hastily packing my things into my back pack. Spare tunic, tooth brush, and everything else I could possible need. I saw Grace leaning on the door way, her arms folded, eyebrows raised.

She had tanned from our time spent out in the forest and most of her freckles had disappeared, her face was a little bit sunburned. Which made her look like she was always blushing; it was cute, which she denied. Her hair had lightened from being out of the sun so it looked more like she had an accident at a Cheetos factory then as if someone had set her head on fire.

"Yeah?" I asked, she came over to me and put her hand on my shoulder.

"Sham, I know you aren't going to listen if I tell you to calm down and stay here, so all I can do to ensure your safe is to come with you." She whispered. I looked up at her.

"You're serious?" I asked.

"Yeah, I am. We're a team, remember?" She raised her eyebrows.

"Pack up we leave in 10 minutes." I couldn't help smiling a little bit, I didn't think she would have come, she nodded and began to move around the room packing her bag.

"Should we invite your sister?" She asked.

"No, she'll try to stop me." I said.

"Okay, then, we don't have to invite your sister." She said. It was as though she had some kind of… choice, either to go with me or come hunt me down, which I suspected is what she would do if I just disappeared altogether.

"Thanks." We spent the last few minutes of packing before she said;

"We should pack a tent and a sleeping bag."

I turned around and looked at her. "Why?"

"Because, we have enchanted bags and it could get cold." She explained. I nodded and she proceeded to pack those things. "Ready?"

"Yeah." I muttered. We snuck out the door, and strolled to Thalia's pine. We were lucky that everyone was in classes and no one would think to look for us until dinner, which was just about all I managed to make on time.

I could see that something was bothering grace when I looked at her, so on the edge of the forest, where the camp vans are parked I stopped.

"Sham, we need to keep going." She sighed, looking at me like I was her little brother or something.

"No, we can wait a few minutes, just long enough for you explain what's wrong." I said.

"It's nothing I can't handle." She insisted and kept walking, I wasn't fooled though, and she knew it.

"Grace, how can I be expected to trust you if you can't trust me?" I climbed into one of the camp vans and began to hot wire it.

"It's personal Shamrock." She sighed, climbing into the passenger seat.

"On a scale of one to five," I sat up and met her eyes. "how personal is it?"

"A ten." She looked at her feet.

"Okay." I said, reaching over and patting her hand.

"You're really just going to let is go like that?" She asked.

"No, I'll be turning it over in my mind until you feel like telling me." I answered.

"Somehow I knew you were going to say that." She muttered. "Do you have any idea where we're supposed to be going?"

I thought about that and frowned. "No, but we should head to Gettysburg, I know someone who likes to hang out on cemeteries."

"Sham, Gettysburg is a battlefield not a cemetery." Grace pointed out.

"Maybe, but there were dozens of bodies that weren't identified and something tells me their spirits are still there and someone likes to hang out with the dead." I said.

"Shamrock you can't be serious." Grace groaned, she hated him as much as I did.

"Oh I am, we need to find Nico DiAngello." I said.

Well as it turns out Gettysburg is a lot farther then I thought. Grace and I ended up stopping in the city to buy a map a guess what? It was over 300 miles to Gettysburg.

"Shamrock this is going to take a really long time to get to." She whispered. I must have looked wounded.

"Grace, we have to get there." I said.

"I know, we will." She said calmly. "But it will be evening before we get there and the park could be closed."

"It's all the better if it's at night, we have a better chance of seeing Nico." I said.

"Why do you need to find Nico?" A voice said from behind us, I turned and scowled.

"We meant to leave you at home." I said.

Lilly looked taken aback. "Why?"

"Because you would have tried to stop me." I snapped.

"Why would I have tried to stop you?" Her voice rose a bit.

"You always do! It's always Lilly knows best, your always the one who's got the level head, and you act like you have to watch me!" I shouted.

"I do not!" She yelled.

"Yes you do!" I shouted.

"Maybe it's because you are too stubborn to see the dangers of the things you do!" She yelled.

"Really? You don't think I saw the dangers of charging into battle in a group of soldiers who would all most likely be dead by that morning! I killed four people Lilly." I yelled. Grace's head snapped up, honestly I was a little surprised she let us fight it out like that.

"Shamrock." Grace breathed, the look on her eyes was one of shock and horror.

"Yes Grace I know." I snapped, shrinking back against the wall of the building I was currently backed against.

She just looked at me bewildered. "The wild took control and the next thing I knew I was laying in a pool of blood, and there were four bodies next to me."

"Oh Shamrock." Grace's eyes were the size of saucers.

Someone walked up behind Lilly "Who died?"

"Four people, at my own accord!" I snapped, the guy looked taken aback. "Who's this Lilly?"

"Um, well Orion wanted me to find you guys and he sent Luke with me." Lilly shifted uncomfortably.

"Dandy cakes and sunshine." I stood up and Grace put a hand on my shoulder, I shrugged it off. "Let's go then. Lilly you have to come with us."

"Why?" she asked.

"Because you'll tell Orion where I am." I pointed out.

"But what if I don't want to?" She asked.

"Then think of this as a hostage situation." I said.

"Okay then, come on Luke, we have to play hostage." She grumbled.

"I have to meet Thalia in an hour." He tried.

"Not anymore you don't" I said and led them off to the car.

Luke looked a little worried when I climbed into the front seat. Though after Lily reassured him that I had driven them across the country once with the only minor accident being blowing up a girl scout van, he seemed to be somewhat more willing to let me drive, though he checked for car bombs first..

We drove, and drove and drove. By the time night fell we were about an hour outside of Gettysburg and I could tell the drone of the road was making everybody restless. Grace reached over and patted my hand reassuringly and for a moment I wished it was just the two of us.

Lilly

Grace reached over and patted Shamrock's hand. Luke leaned over "Isn't that illegal?"

"What, comforting Shamrock?" I frowned, it might not be the best idea but it sure wasn't illegal.

"No for a hunter to do, well that, with a guy." He pointed, Grace held onto Sham's had for a few moments.

"Well, yes but we all know that she likes him and he likes her, they just won't admit to it." I answered. He considered this for a moment.

"Oh." He muttered. "Isn't that technically, you know illegal?"

"Not exactly, but it is against Shamrock's moral code, which basically means that to him it feels so wrong, he's scared of it no matter what he might say." I explained.

"What about you?" Luke asked.

"I am the same way." I confessed.

Shamrock

While driving I was forced to immerse myself in my thoughts. Not something I really wanted to do. Was my mother okay? Where was she? What was that man doing to her? All these and a million more thoughts were running through my head.

About an hour outside of Gettysburg Luke took over the job of driving and I fell asleep in the back, only to be troubled once again by a dream.

_I was in the middle of nowhere. Literally, there was nothing but sand. Wait no was that sand? No it appeared to be salt. I turned around and saw there were mountains on all sides of me. To my left was a board walk, I strolled over to it. It read "Bad Water Basin, Lowest point in North America -282 feet below sea level." The name sounded familiar. I saw a very shallow pool of water nearby and frowned. Bad Water. Why was that so familiar? _

_ A vulture cawed overhead. I turned and watched it leave._

_ "Shamrock!" I heard a strong Irish voice call. I turned, it was the boy who looked very much like Grace. _

_ "Who are you?" I asked. _

_ "There's no time for that now! Your mother is being held here, you'll find a passage behind one of the rocks. But hurry, Ancteon is getting impatient." He called. _

_ "What's he going to do?" I snarled. _

_ "I-I don't know exactly but it won't be pretty. Tell Grace I'm sorry." HE said, he pointed to the sun and I fixed my gaze upon it, and when I looked back he was gone._

I sat up to Lilly shaking me. "Wake up, we're here. Now let's find Nico and get out of here." I sat up and found myself in a parking lot. I climbed out of the car and stood next to Grace who shivered. Not because it was cold, but because of what was going on maybe a hundred yards out, in the middle of one of the battle fields.

Music, old style, like someone was playing the fiddle and others were dancing. Not normal people, seeing as a battle field was a strange place for a dance, but ghosts. Lots of them some dressed in Civil War era clothes, others in colonial, and a few in 1920's style. An eerie blue aura surrounded them.

Lilly started making her way towards them, fearlessly. It always freaked me out how comfortable she was in the underworld, or places that reeked of death. I could never have been like that; just standing there was giving me a seriously bad feeling. She was right though if there was one place Nico was likely to be it was here. In the middle of the dancing dead.

He was too, we found him Dancing with the ghost of a small girl. He muttered something to her and came over to where we were standing.

"Hello Lilly," He said. "Grace." He scanned me. "Shamrock."

"Hi Nico, we need your help." I said.

"Okay." He nodded.

"My mother is being held in the underworld, and you know it better than anyone." I said.

"Do you have a relative idea of the closest entrance?" He asked me. "Oh, you girls, and Luke, feel free to dance." He waved his hands at all the ghosts, Luke started to dance with one of the ghost but Grace kind of shuffled away.

"Um, somewhere called Bad Water Basin." I said.

Nico frowned. "Death Valley, it's also the lowest point in North America, and the hottest place on earth."

"I kind of figured that out for myself." I nodded.

"Very well, we leave in the morning, but for now please, dance." He waved his arm out to the crowd. Grace grabbed my hand and pulled me into the center of the dance floor, and my level of comfort plummeted. I was in the middle of a dance floor, surrounded by ghosts with a _girl _who had just put one of my hands on her waste. To say that this wasn't a good place for me is an understatement.

"Grace do we have to?" I whimpered.

"In case you didn't pick up on it that was a threat not a suggestion." She muttered. "But no we don't have to we can just stand here a couple of minutes."

After a while she drug me over to a stone wall and sat down. She sat about three and a half feet away from me. Which was strange for Grace. She had seemed somewhat distant all day like she was thinking deeply about a problem that she didn't know how to fix. I wanted to ask her what was wrong but I knew I would receive another vague or harsh answer. She seemed to be muttering to herself under her breath.

"Lovely evening." I commented.

"Cad é?" She said startled, I looked at her blankly. She looked at me for a minute until she realized that I had no idea what she had just said. "What?"

"I just commented on the lovely evening." I said.

"It is a lovely evening." She said.

"Then again," I scowled. "The people on _Titanic_ were having a lovely evening on April 14, 1912."

"You are so negative."

"No, I'm honest." I said. We sat in silence for a few minutes, my thoughts filled with images of screaming people leaping off of ships.

"It was an Irish ship." Grace spoke up suddenly.

"What?" It was my turn to be startled.

"Titanic, it was an Irish ship." She said again.

"No it wasn't, _The White Star Line_ was and English shipping company." I corrected.

"Maybe, yes but the Irish built the Titanic." She insisted.

"Okay, but is that something to be proud of? It sank." I pointed out.

"Oh that was the fault of the Captain, an English captain, who didn't listen to Ice Burg warnings." She said.

"So it's the fault of the English?" I wondered.

"Yes, it was in production when my family left Ireland, but Sean always said he'd take me back to Ireland on the_ Titanic. _He never found out it sank, he died before that." She sighed.

"You two look glum." My sister commented, as she sat down next to me.

"We're talking about the _Titanic_." I muttered.

"Oh, you two always talk about the strangest things." Lilly shook her head.

"Sham brought it up." Grace informed.

"I figured he did." Lilly smiled weakly. Grace stood up.

"I, uh have to go." She hurried off into the dark behind us.

"What's her problem?" I wondered aloud. Lilly shifted uncomfortably, and I turned on her. "You know don't you?"

"Sham," She shifted uncomfortably under my gaze. "it's nothing I can tell you."

"Why?" I poked.

"I just can't." She muttered.

"Why can't you?" I pushed, I knew my sister and eventually she would crack.

"Shamrock," She sighed in defeat. "it's really personal, and it's not my place. You wouldn't understand anyway."

"Why would she tell you but not me?" I was a little bit hurt by that.

"Because, Sham it's something only another girl could help her out with." Lilly got up, grabbed Nico's hand and went to join the dancing, leaving my to stare critically out at the world

Luke

Call him crazy but Luke couldn't relax around Shamrock. At first he couldn't figure out why but as he watched Shamrock glare through the crowd of ghosts, he figured it out. It was those eyes.

The cold silver color made him look even more like his mother then he already did. It made the cold part of him even more apparent. As though warning everyone that he would do whatever was necessary to reach his goal, that he wasn't afraid of a fight and would even welcome it. It was through those cold eyes that one could see every aspect of the wild, the good, the bad, and the outrageously wild. It was unnerving.

Shamrock

I glared around at the world, I was in a bad mood.

**_You know she is entitled privacy?_**

_I know but, why would she tell Lilly and not me?_

**_Shamrock, there are something's that girls need other girls for. You are still Grace's best friend, still the first person to have complete access to her emotions in over a hundred year, cherish that. _**

_How?_

**_Shamrock you might not know it but you mean a lot to Grace, more then you understand._**

_She's means a lot to me but what does that have to do with anything._

**_You don't know it yet but your relationship with Grace could mean your entire fate._**

_Well now I know._

**_No you know that but you don't understand what it means or where you stand with Grace, thus you don't know your fate. _**

_Care to explain? _

**_…_**

****"Of course not! That would be too damn easy!" I shouted. Grace put a hand on my shoulder and I jumped.

"Shamrock, calm down." She whispered, her familiar accent making the end of my name a soft sound instead of a hard one. It took a few deep breaths.

"Okay." I said.

"See that's better, now why don't you come on back to the van." She took my hand and I noticed everyone was gone and the van was running.

I nodded and let her lead me back. Conscious was right I didn't know exactly where I stood in my relationship with Grace. I knew she loved me, and that I loved her, but where did we stand, we were forbidden to love each other and I still wasn't sure that I could love her, or even if what I felt was love or was it just affection? It scared me that was needless to say.

I couldn't focus on that at the moment, I had to find my mom and I knew once I did that everything would be fine. The problem was that I wasn't one hundred percent sure where my mother was and even if I did how would I get into the underworld.

"Shamrock." Nico said, pulling me out of my thoughts. "Do you have any clue where your mother might be?"

"Well I had a dream, I was surrounded by salt, rocks and sand in the dessert, there was a small pool of water and a sign." I said.

"What did the sign say?" He asked, I knew I had told him this, but decided to tell him anyway.

"Bad Water Basin and some kind of altitude sign." I answered. Grace flinched.

"Shamrock, do you know where that is?" She asked.

"No where?"I frowned, I did know but any conversation would be nice now.

"Death Valley National Park, California." She said. "Anything that goes on there isn't good."

"What happened there?" This was probably the only thing I didn't know.

"In the 1800's a group of pioneers went through Death Valley on their way to California and like a dozen of them died and by the time they came out the 8 year old boy weighed as much and a 3 year old." She shuttered at the thought.

"Oh, well that's not good." I said.

"No it's not," Nico agreed. "but if it's where your mom is being held, then Death Valley here we come."

We decided just to camp in Gettysburg that night, Grace took the time to point out that it was illegal but I pointed out how many times we'd broken the law, and that sleeping on a battlefield was somewhat on the low side of our crimes.

During my watch I decided to call Apollo. I grabbed a spray bottled and tossed in a drachma, Apollo looked frantic when he answered. "Shamrock! There you are!"

"Hi Uncle Apollo." I sighed.

"Where are you?" He asked.

"It's complicated, but we're going to find mom." I insisted, I think it was something in my voice but he sighed.

"Please be carefully little buddy. Orion's losing his mind, poor guy feels bad. Do you want to talk to him?" Apollo asked.

"No!" I snapped. "Sorry, but I mean I called because I wanted to talk to you, not to Orion."

"Okay, that's fine too. What's up?" HE smiled.

"It's complicated." My eyes flicked towards Grace.

"Ah, girl stuff." Apollo grinned. "Shamrock you have no idea how long I've been waiting for this! What's the problem?"

"Something's wrong with Grace, she just seems way more distant than usual, and she talked to Lilly about it." I sighed.

"Shamrock, this is a really tough time for Grace, her emotions are conflicted, and she doesn't know what to do anymore. For one hundred years she had a stable life, and a clear path but the last six months have been twists and turns, things aren't clear for her anymore and while she was mortal she had too much of that, more than any fifteen year-old should have to handle." Apollo explained.

"She was fifteen?" I asked. I had thought for sure she was older then that at least my age.

"Barely, she had been fifteen only a week." Apollo said.

"Then why is she taller than me?" I frowned.

"Shamrock I know fourth graders who are taller than you." Apollo pointed out.

"Oh, that's depressing." I sighed.

"Anyway the point of this conversation was that Grace needs something a bit stable something she can count on." He said.

"I'm not stable?" I asked.

"No Sham, you're really not, you can be kind of unpredictable." Apollo said.

"Yeah I guess I am but so can she, I can never tell what she's feeling and why. She has this constant wall up!" I snap.

"She does but Shamrock, you have been slowly teaching her how to trust again. Castle walls can be broken." Apollo said. "Shamrock I have to go, but you need to know this."

"What do I need to know, unless it has to do with mom I don't care!" I snapped.

"Shamrock, like it or not you and Grace aren't that different. You are in fact very alike." Apollo suddenly smiled. "Now I have to go, I have a date tonight!" and before I could speak again the message dissipated.

Gods forbid anybody give me a straight answer anymore. I sighed and went to wake Grace for the next watch. I nudged her awake, her green eyes opened almost instantly which showed me that she wasn't actually asleep. She gave me a weak smile and exited he tent. I took what was once her spot, it was still warm and the pillow smelled lightly of Lilac. There wasn't enough room in the tent for all of us, so if one of us wasn't always outside we would all have to sleep on top of each other.

I didn't really sleep, I just tossed and turned for an hour or so, until I heard Grace waking Luke for the next watch, she slipped down next to me and was quiet for a few minutes but I knew she wasn't asleep. I tapped her shoulder and she turned around.

"What?" She whispered, her accent was slightly harsher and thicker than usual, I guessed she was mad.

"What's up? I could hear you talking to Thalia." I said, they had been conversing in low voices outside the tent I had only caught a few words like 'leaving' and 'right choice'

"Shamrock, it's that really personal thing again." She whispered, her voice softened a bit.

"Okay." I said, she looked so broken. "I just think you should know that you don't have to keep the walls up around me."

"I know, I don't try to, but after this long its reflexive. Just like you keeping the gods out of your mind." She explained.

"Okay, good night." I said.

"Good night Shamrock." She whispered. I got the feeling that neither one of us slept though.

As the sun rose over the horizon we began to break camp. Nico assured us that the camping gear could be left in the ranger station, though who would camp in Gettysburg is beyond me. Luke had to return to camp so Nico called on Mrs. O'Leary, which Grace thought was an strange name because she had a neighbor named Mrs. O'Leary. Lilly offered to drive when she saw just how exhausted I was, I didn't want to but I decided to let her because the look on her face she'd kill me if I got us all killed in a car accident.

I slid into the back seat next to Grace, Nico was sitting up front with my sister, he and Lilly both seemed rather tense at the moment. Almost like me an Grace were most of the time, this was strange because Lilly was almost always relaxed and chill. Something that I wasn't but she just seemed so on pins and needles about something.

**_Your mother is missing after all_**

_Yeah but it's just a little strange, she was more chill when I came back from the dead. _

**_Why don't you ask her?_**

_And get kicked? No thank you. But you've been oddly quiet. _

**_I just haven't had anything to say recently. _**

_And why is that?_

**_I just haven't after all I am the quiet one of the group. _**

_Really?_

**_Don't get sarcastic with me. _**

I rolled my eyes and glanced over at Grace, she was staring out the window with a faraway look in her eyes like she was somewhere else in her mind. Grace seemed so… distant from everybody else, almost as though even if we tried to reach her we couldn't. We would never understand her fully.

There were parts of Grace I knew well, like her temper and her usual gentler temperament. The side I didn't know very well was the side of her past I didn't often see the Grace who would care for the little children, the one who would run along the side of a river laughing. She had told me about that side but I had never seen it myself and I wanted to, but I didn't know if I would ever be aloud.

Grace

At the moment Grace was in Ireland, in her mind she was running through the fields with her brother, her waist length hair flying. She was in simpler times, times when she was just glad to be free of her corset. She wanted to go back to those times where all she had to worry about were the four smaller children left in her care and her corset; she did hate the dreaded thing.

Now though that wasn't all she had to worry about, in fact she would have welcomed a corset if it meant that was all she had to worry about. Now she had to worry about Shamrock, and the possible end of the world, she had to worry about where she belonged, if she even belonged anywhere. It was almost laughable how a corset had been the least of her problems.

Shamrock

Apollo was probably right, I should call Orion, he was probably worried sick by now. I didn't really care, I didn't want him around, I had never wanted him around, I'll admit that for a brief while I did want to know who he was but I would have been content with just knowing that not having him come live with us.

Orion was probably the most easy going father ever. I hated it. I hated being able to get away with anything. What's the point of doing stuff if you're allowed to do it? It was just more boring without a challenge. At least with Apollo I knew the rules. No cooking, no hunting, and no going deep into the forest. Which was why I broke them all. Not only did it give me something to do it gave me a reason to do it.

I sighed, the sun was up now and the clock read six thirty am. It was way too early in the morning to be thinking about yet anything adventure of ours. Luke had to get back to camp and promised not to tell anything to Chiron. Lilly looked at me and Grace, both half asleep in the back of the car.

"Let's stop at McDonalds for some Coffee and Hash browns." She said, and pulled into the parking lot.

* * *

**OKAY URGENT. If you want an early update then I have a challenge for you.  
**

**If you can successfully tell me Shamrock's middle name the update will come up on Saturday instead of Wednesday. **

**HINT: It is hidden somewhere in one of the five parts.  
**

**Oh and PS you will all hate me for the next chapter.  
**


	4. Betrayal

**Well you got his middle name right! so here you go the early update.**

**I apologize in advance for this chapter.  
**

**This one is for my muse with out whom I would be lost.  
**

* * *

Four

Betrayal

Key – _The Wild_

**_The Conscious_**

**_The Instinct_**

_Shamrock_

_4._

_Flash'd all their sabres bare,  
Flash'd as they turn'd in air,  
Sabring the gunners there,  
Charging an army, while  
All the world wonder'd:  
Plunged in the battery-smoke  
Right thro' the line they broke;  
Cossack and Russian  
Reel'd from the sabre stroke  
Shatter'd and sunder'd.  
Then they rode back, but not  
Not the six hundred._

**This is where I lost my muse…**

_Secret of the Silver Bow Fun Fact 10: I started writing Secret of the Silver Bow in May of last year, then I forgot about it an didn't write it until November of last year, when I was going through some older files, I saw this and was about to delete it when Shamrock very clearly said. "Stop, and Listen" Ever since then I have been attached to Shamrock as he drug me through the twists and turns of his adventures. _

Shamrock

We were all seated in a booth at McDonalds, I had a cup of coffee in my hand and was running my hand absent mindedly through my hair, Lilly had dark circles under her eyes, Grace was pale as a ghost and the circles under her eyes made her look as though she had been punched several times. So far Nico looked like the only one who'd gotten any sleep what so ever. Lilly seemed to have gotten more sleep then either me or Grace though.

"So Death Valley." I sighed. "Sounds like I don't belong there.

"Yeah," Nico muttered. "None of us do, it's hot and dry the only water in the valley is Alkali, so we can't even drink it. There are however a number of resorts."

"Resorts?" I asked.

"It's a tourist attraction mostly." Nico shook his head in disgust. "Stupid idea really but people go there over winter break because of the weather. As I was saying the closest one to Bad Water Basin is Stove Pipe Wells, I booked us a room last night."

"How?" I asked.

"I broke into the ranger station." He answered.

"How did you pay?" I asked.

"My dad is the richest of the Greek deities it will take him a few months to realize anything is missing." Nico grumbled.

"You stole from the Greek god of the underworld?" I asked.

"Yes." He sighed.

"Nico, even I'm not that crazy."

"Shamrock," Grace whispered. "who told you to go to Bad Water Basin?"

"I don't know I never learned his name." I shrugged.

"What did he look like?" Grace asked.

"You, red hair, accident-in-a-Cheetos-factory freckles, green eyes, fair skin, Irish accent. It was oddly like looking at you as a boy. He knew you, he said to tell you he was sorry." I said.

"Sean." Grace's voice quivered. "That sounds like my brother, Sean."

"Grace we shouldn't jump to conclusions." Lilly said. "It might not be your brother."

"Oh, it's her brother alright." Nico said. "I'm somewhat surprised it took you this long to find out."

"You knew?" I said.

"Of course I knew who was causing you all this trouble, honestly I helped Ancteon out at first." Nico confessed.

"You little back stabber!" Lilly yelled, pushing him out of the booth. "You cause all these problems, and then just think you can kiss me?"

Now this was beyond my realm of knowledge, but I wasn't about to stop Lilly.

"Wait, wait!" Nico said. "Hear me out."

"Fine," Lilly spat. "I will but only because I am a decent American."

"Okay, so this started as revenge against your mom, it started a long time ago too. When I first found out about Shamrock, I helped Ancteon find a way to kid nap the hunters, then I convinced Apollo to take the scythe of time, and then I caused you to drop it, the scythe being a thing of dark power was briefly under my realm of control. When you returned you briefly messed up out plans by falling off a cliff but you owe me your life, I convinced him to open the portal, you would indeed have died if it weren't for me. Your return was also planned, by me, but that was where my involvement stopped." Nico said.

"So let me get this straight, you make my life hell, and just think you can go around kissing my sister?" I asked.

"Okay, the kiss was just an unplanned bonus." Nico confessed, Lilly slapped him.

"That's for kissing me." She snarled, Grace leaned across and slapped him.

"That's for hurting My Lady." Grace snarled.

"Are you going to hit him?" Lilly asked, grabbing Nico by the scruff of the neck so he couldn't leave.

"No what's done is done, and like it or not we need his help to get mom back." I said. "So Lilly, let him go please."

"Fine, but only because you said please." She let him go. "Come on Death Breath, let's go."

We climbed back into the car and I looked over at Grace. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"I'm fine, just a bit hurt that Sean would do this." She muttered. "Well I suppose I ought to have expected it, Sean did love power."

"I'm sorry Grace, I really am." I whispered.

"It's fine Shamrock, I'm somewhat used to the feeling of everything I know coming tumbling down." She sighed.

"I'm sorry." I muttered again.

"It's not your fault." She said.

"Can we please get a move on?" Lilly asked. "The longer I'm in the car with Death Breath the higher our chances of arriving with a party of three!"

"Okay, okay we're moving, Gods." I rolled my eyes, trying to shake the creepy feeling coming from the thought that she just sounded a lot like me.

Nico sat in the back of the car in complete silence, which was a wise choice because if he had spoken I got the feeling Lilly would have taken a leaf out of my book and solved the problem with violence. You know what they say, all is fair in love and war.

Grace glanced back at them like they were two naughty children getting ready to fight with each other. Which they were. The phone in my pocket buzzed, I sighed half-bloods technically weren't supposed to have cell phones but after I fell off the cliff my mom made me start carrying one, clearly she's more worried about the possibility of my destroying myself and others then she is of the monsters destroying me.

It was Orion. I glanced at Grace and handed her the phone. "It's illegal to talk while driving."

"Figures the only time you obey the law is when you don't want to talk to your dad." Grace grumbled and answered the phone.

Grace

"Hello?" She said into the receiver.

"Grace!" Orion's worried voice yelled into the receiver. Reflexively Grace held the phone way out at arm's length.

"Lord Orion, sir, you don't have to yell, I can hear you just fine." She chided. Shamrock rolled his eyes at her calling him Lord Orion, even though he wasn't a god he was still Lady Artemis' lover which in Grace's eyes made him, Lord Orion.

"Are you sure?" He bellowed.

"Yes I'm sure." She sighed.

"Oh." He said. "Is Shamrock there?"

Shamrock looked at Grace in a pleading way and mouthed 'don't say yes.'

"Um I'm an American, I have the right to remain silent?" She tried.

"Grace." Orion said sternly

"Fine, yes sir he is here, but he can't talk right now." She said.

"Why?" Orion interrogated.

'Lie' Shamrock mouthed, Grace shifted uncomfortably.

"He's, um… taking a bath?" She tried.

"Taking a bath?" He sounded skeptical.

"Please Lord Orion, all I can tell you at the moment is that he's safe, he loves you and Aikatrina and this is something he has to do. Bye!" Grace hung up hastily.

Shamrock

I knew I should have had Lilly talk to Orion. I glanced at Grace. "Really? 'I'm an American I have the right to remain silent.' First that was the lamest thing to say and second aren't you Irish?"

"I am ethnically Irish and I was born Irish but when I came through Ellis Island my citizen ship changed to American." Grace explained. "For the record I thought it was worth a try."

"Well it wasn't and really 'he's in the bath'? That was even worse than the right to remain silent." I couldn't help but laugh.

"What else was I supposed to say?" She asked.

"Pretty much anything but that." I said. "Why did you tell him I loved him and Aikatrina?"

"Don't you?" She asked.

"I don't know." I muttered.

"You don't know?" She asked.

"Yeah, I don't trust Orion and I don't like Aikatrina." I said.

"Why don't you trust Orion?" She wondered.

"I just don't. He's not like mom was, he came of as likable but I didn't immediately trust him and now I really don't trust him." I said.

"Shamrock maybe he couldn't tell you for reasons he couldn't explain." Grace said.

"I'm his kid, I have a right to know!" I said.

"Shamrock, maybe you don't. In my family the children didn't ever learn when mother was expecting another until she was far enough along that we could see it." She said.

"This is different!" I snapped.

"All I'm saying is that you don't know what was going on for Orion and Apollo that would cause both of them to neglect to tell you." Grace was very calm about everything. I thought about what Apollo had said about us being very alike, I still didn't know what that was supposed to mean.

"How long until we reach Death Valley?" I growled.

"About a day and two thirds." Nico muttered.

"Shut up!" Lilly snarled and I heard a smacking noise as her hand collided with his face.

We drove for 12 hours, we stopped just three times to eat and go to the bathroom. Grace was silent almost all day with the exception of her input as to where we should eat. Something was wrong with her, I didn't know if I should ask what or if it was a girl problem that I should never bring up.

Finally I got the courage to bring it up. "What's wrong?"

"I don't want to talk about it." She said.

"Is it something I did or is it a girl problem?" I asked.

"For once its neither." She sighed. "It's Sean. How could he do this to family."

"Maybe that is my fault." I sighed.

"How?" She asked, looking at me.

"Maybe he saw that I well, got close to you and he got mad and now he wants to hurt me, and Ancteon gave him a chance." I said.

"But it's hurting me to." She whispered.

"Well maybe this is like Luke, he was so blinded by his hatred for the gods hurting Thalia, and Annabeth, the only family he really had. That he didn't see that in the long run he would cause them more pain then the gods ever could." I explained.

"Oh Shamrock I hope you're right, because he always had his head on straight. He never drank too much or anything." She muttered.

"Drinking? Like whiskey and beer?" I asked.

"Yes." She nodded.

"At fourteen?" I asked.

She sighed. "Shamrock you have to remember that this was Ireland in the 1800's it was acceptable for me and Sean to have a bit of alcohol of course at about two hours into the family parties we had to watch out for our selves because the adults, except for my mother, would be so drunk they were falling over." She said.

"No one questioned this?" I asked.

"No, why would they?" She frowned and it took me a moment to remember Grace wouldn't know that you have to be 21 in America to drink any type of alcohol. I guess being immortal and mostly out of touch with everything wouldn't be as fun as they say.

"Grace, in America you have to be 21 to consume alcohol." I said.

"Is that a new law?" She frowned.

"No, not really." I said.

"Oh." She frowned as though trying to figure out when this 'new law' was passed.

I glanced in the rearview mirror and caught Lilly's eye. "Can I see the phone Sham?" She asked.

"Okay." I reached in my pocket and handed it back to her. She took it but didn't call anyone. I pulled into a motel six. Since we didn't have any money I took a tent out of the camp van and set it up. Thank gods it was a hunters tent and was bigger on the inside then on the outside. Grace and I unrolled the sleeping bags and set one of them outside and pointed to Nico.

"I sleep here?" He asked.

"Yes you do." Grace said. I looked around and noticed Lilly was standing by the side of the motel talking on the phone to someone.

Lilly

I dialed the number in the phone. It rang twice and someone picked up. "Hello?"

"Hi Jake." I said.

"Lilly where are you calling from?" He asked.

"Well actually I don't know, but the phone it Shamrock's." I sighed.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"My mom's been kid napped." My voice wavered, and I bit into the side of my cheek, I wouldn't cry.

"Lilly, I'm so sorry. Is there anything that I can do to help?" He asked.

"N-no." My voice cracked. "I-I have to do this on my own."

"Lilly, you know if you want to come back you can?" He said.

"I know that, but I spent my entire life trying to get out of Forks, and I'm not about to go back." I said.

"Okay, I have to go but if you need anything at all just give us call." He hung up and I sank down against the hotel wall. I drew my knees to my chest and rested my forehead on them, tears making their way down my face.

"Lilly?" Shamrock whispered from next to me.

"Y-yes?" I asked not looking up.

"We'll find her." He put an arm around me.

"What if we don't?" I managed. "W-what if she's gone forever. I-I just got my mom back S-shamrock I'm not about to let her go again."

"We will find her Lilly." He said.

"Okay. If you say so, you haven't lied to me yet. Can I please be left alone?"

"Yeah."

Shamrock

How could I have been this stupid? I didn't even think about how this would affect Lilly. She was right about only just getting our mom back, I'd known for months before Lilly had. I don't think she had quite accepted the concept, that her mother was the virgin goddess; even now she still called her Lady Artemis to her face. Orion was dad to her but mom was always Lady Artemis.

Before I had always thought that she had accepted it but now I knew that it had all been a mask, a wall of sorts. A castle wall that was put up around herself to guard her and everyone around her from her emotions, not that different from Grace. I hoped I could break that wall, but I hadn't fully succeeded in breaking Grace's yet.

Why she had told my she loved me and I loved her I hadn't been fully let in I knew that, but to think that even my own sister hadn't let me in. Ouch. That was just like being stabbed in the heart.

**_But Castle walls can be broken._**

_I sure hope so Conscious. I sure hope so…_

I woke the next morning between Grace and Lilly, there was a murmuring outside. "I don't know why they aren't in the hotel Artemis!" I high pitched voice said.

"Perhaps they are… hobos?" Another female voice said.

"Oh I doubt that Juliette." An Irish boy's voice said. "Come out of there!" It barked.

Grace was up in an instant. She slid silently out of her sleeping bag and put a finger to her lips. I nodded and followed her example. We slid silently out of the tent. I summoned my bow and knocked an arrow.

"Who are you?" I asked coldly. The boy with an Irish accent had dark hair and one blue eye and one hazel. He was wearing a business suit, there was a tall blonde girl, her hair was in a ponytail and there was a jade ring tucked in the end of it. There were three shadows though. I looked around.

"Down here!" the high pitched voice said. I looked down, there was an leprechaun. I'm not kidding or being mean, she was actually a leprechaun, pointed ears, short read hair and a military style combat uniform that said LEPrecon.

"Oh, sorry." I said. "Who are you?"

"We could ask you the same thing." The leprechaun challenged.

"Have we met?" I asked looking over the kid in the suit again.

"I do believe we have. You didn't happen to be in Ireland 1896 did you?" He frowned.

"Yes I was." I frowned.

"How did you get there?" He looked curious.

I raised my eyebrows. "It's complicated."

"Shamrock, who's this?" Lilly asked, groggily dragging herself out of the tent.

"Um, I don't know but they're posing a challenge." I snarled at the boy.

"Hi." Lilly stuck out her hand. "I'm Lilly, this is my brother Shamrock, our friend Grace and the skunk on the floor there is Nico." Lilly kicked Nico once hard and he groaned and got up.

"I thought you loved me!" He snarled.

That was too much for Lilly and me, she lunged at him and I refocused my bow. "Say the word sister and he'll be dead!"

Lilly who was much smaller then Nico was able to pin him to the ground, which made Nico loose even more Man Points in my book, even I could pin my sister down.

"Holly," The Irish boy said. "I thought you said America was a democracy, because this doesn't seem very democratic."

"It is a democracy." I spat. "But that doesn't mean everyone here is in favor of it, right about now good old fashioned Roman brutality sounds good."

"Shamrock hates the government, and not just the American one, all of them; he refused to support anyone in the Olympics." Grace explained.

"Are you Irish?" the boy asked.

"Yes, I am." Grace challenged.

"Why are you here?" He asked, clearly he didn't know anything about girls because he was handling this very wrong.

"I immigrated over a hundred years ago. Do you have a problem with that?" She sassed.

"Can I get up?" Nico asked.

"No!" Lilly brought out a hunting knife.

"Gods, you are both exactly like you're mom! Psychotic!" Nico yelled. Now Grace was on him too.

"What. Did. You. Say. About. My. Mom." My voice was deadly calm. I had reached a level of anger where I was fighting to control Instinct and Wild. The rational part of me, tiny little Conscious was telling me to calm down.

**_Shamrock, calm down. You need him remember?_**

Unfortunately Conscious was out numbered, 3 to 1.

Grace

In her entire life Grace had never been this terrified. She had slapped Nico once but now she saw the look in Shamrock and Lilly's eyes, it was so different. A fire of hate seemed to burn there, but she could see the human side of them trying to fight back. That humanity seemed so small in comparison to the divine sides trying to take over.

She wanted to comfort Shamrock and to calm him down but she wasn't sure how to do it. Then she remembered the CD in the van. She ran over to the van and grabbed it, then she took a portable CD player out of Nico's bag, inserted the CD and pressed play. Apollo's Lyre sounded throughout the area playing Shamrock's Lullaby.

The change in Lilly was instantaneous, she calmed down and climbed off of Nico, but Shamrock remained where he was.

"Oh no!" Grace moaned. "It's not working!"

"What isn't?" The shorter of the 3 asked,

"It's supposed to calm him down but either he's too angry to be calmed down by the lullaby or the Wild part of him isn't letting him hear it!" Grace said.

"Then how come it worked on her?" she girl asked again.

The boy snorted. "It's obvious Holly, she wasn't expecting it."

"Oh, We could try Mesmer." The girl, Holly offered.

"Mesmer?" Grace asked, looking down at her.

"Yeah, I am going to guess right off the bat you people aren't normal and neither are we, but I can calm him down, with, um… hypnotism?" Holly tried.

"Holly they aren't believing you. Holly here is a an Elf, she has several magical powers and the ability to control the minds of humans is one of them." The boy explained.

"Artemis!" Holly said. "You can't just go giving out secrets willy nilly!"

"Holly, these people can help us. But you have to help their friend first." The boy 'Artemis' said.

"Listen boy!" Grace spat, suddenly finding that she detested the boy. "I don't know what she is going to try and do to my friend but I can tell you it's not going to work! He's had a mind block up since he was four years old, it is impossible to read or control his mind."

"I can try." Holly offered, going up to Shamrock. "Let the boy go." Her voice was so calm and soothing Grace found it hard not to listen but either the full power wasn't directed at everyone or her stubbornness was making her resist.

"No." Shamrock's voice was cold as iron.

"Let him go." Holly pushed and this time it was even harder to resist.

"No." But Shamrock's voice had wavered, ever so slightly.

"Let him go!" Holly pushed and this time Grace sat down, letting the boy called Artemis go. It wasn't his fault he had the same name as her lady after all.

"No!" Shamrock snapped.

"I command you let him go!" Holly said.

"Oh you command it?!" Shamrock turned his full attention to her and Nico wriggled out from under him.

"Thank you." Holly smiled and Shamrock sat there baffled.

"What just happened?" He asked Grace.

"It's complicated." She answered.

Shamrock

We packed up the tent and listened to the story of the fairies and elves and all that nonsense, then I turned to the boy. "So who are you?" I asked.

"I am Artemis Fowl, criminal mastermind." He straightened up and smoothed his suit Jacket.

"I am Shamrock Orion Clove, son of Artemis." I nodded.

"Impossible." Artemis brushed me off.

"How?" I asked.

"Well you are either speaking of my father, because in Ireland great hunters were given the name Artemis, and I know you are not my brother or you are speaking of the goddess Artemis, which is impossible because the gods never existed and she was a virgin goddess, she couldn't have children." He said.

"Or really, you want to meet Uncle Apollo?" I Asked.

"When you show me proof then I will believe you." He said.

"Okay, Grace get the spray bottle." I instructed.

She did as I asked, and I tossed in a drachma. "Lord Apollo, mount Olympus, please." I said.

A few seconds late Apollo was on screen. "Hey there Sham, who are you're friends."

I rolled my eyes. "I wouldn't call them my friends."

"Well who are they?" Apollo asked.

"Artemis Fowl sir," Artemis brushed me out of the way, "and the blonde girl is Juliette and the elf is Holly."

"You have the same name as my sister." He said. "What did you need?"

"How is it possible 'Shamrock'" He put air quotes around my name. "here is a child of Artemis."

"Well he's not the only one, Lilly the girl who looks like him is a child of Artemis too and they have a little sister Aikatrina. They were the subjects of an experiment that went very, very wrong." Apollo explained.

"So you're the Greek god Apollo." The one called Juliette butted in.

"Yes I am and my I say you are very beautiful." Apollo flashed his winning smile.

"Okay that's nice!" I butted in. "See there's our birth story by Apollo!" I wiped out the mist and turned back to Artemis.

"Well that seems honest enough, though I should explain that I am an atheist and do not believe in any form of god or goddess I believe cold hard science." Artemis said.

"That's great." I rolled my eyes. "Now if you'll excuse us we have to go rescue my mother so we need to get going."

"You now expect me to believe that the goddess of the hunt got kidnapped?" He asked.

"Yes and she's in Death Valley now let's go Grace." I said through clenched teeth and turned to walk to the van.

"Wait!" Artemis sounded almost desperate. "We've lost a friend too, we believe he is being held in the Valley of Death by a group of rouge trolls."

"Come on." Grace said. "Maybe we can help each other."

"Doubt it." I grumbled but obliged to following Grace to the car, Artemis, Holly and Juilet climbed in the back, wisely Juliet sat down between Lilly and Nico.

To be honest I felt terrible for them, I knew Lilly had thought that Nico was someone she could trust. She had never had the same trust issues I had but I was now very afraid that maybe she would, and that thought worried me. I had issues, I always had but I knew Lilly had previously lacked these issues and I hoped Aikatrina would too.

As we pulled into the McDonalds for breakfast a mother came out with a girl about four holding onto one hand and a baby on her hip. I felt a sudden pang of longing, it was the first time I can honestly recall wanting to see Aikatrina.

"You'll see her soon." She whispered, and squeezed my hand supportively.

"What if something happens and I don't come back, or m-mom doesn't make it." I bit my lip.

"Shamrock you are coming back, and your mother is coming back." She whispered.

"Um, you two are we going to get something to eat or not?" Lilly asked.

"I'm not hungry, just get me a coffee, I'll wait here." I said.

"Okay," Lilly said. "Grace do you want something?"

"Um, yeah I'll come." She said, climbing out of the passenger seat and following the others in.

What if I didn't make it back? The last time that happened my mom kind of lost it. Would that happen again? Would she be okay for Aikatrina's sake? I liked to think she would but I wasn't a hundered percent sure I would. But I didn't know what I know now, thinking back on it. I should have stopped, taken a few days and not done what I'd did but it's too late now.

I leaned back against the seat and pulled out my wallet, I flipped to where I kept the pictures, last month Orion and Mom had gotten our pictures taken. There was one of Me, Lilly, and Aikatrina and ones of the hunters too. I looked at the face of my little sister, she was awake, and I was holding her. I was struck by how much she looked like mom, and I.

Even though her hair was black she had moonlit eyes and her face was pale as the moon. She had my nose, well okay, Orion's nose, my mom's soft face, and her small form. She was giggling, and playing with my hair. The next one was of My and Lilly, standing with our arms around each other and smiling. After that was Me and Grace, then me and the hunt. Finally the one I was looking for.

The one of me and Ai (Aikatrina) I was holding her up to my face and she was giggling and playing with my hair. This had been my least favorite one to shoot but it was definitely my favorite. After that picture was the one of Grace in her dress that her mother made her.

Another one of my favorites was my mom and Ai, Ai was asleep and my mom was smiling. I missed them both, come to think of it Orion was the only one I didn't miss at all. The four of us would have been just fine without him. We always had been before.

The others returned and Grace handed me my coffee and squeezed my hand. I noticed Artemis was struggling with his cheeseburger.

"You eat it with your hands." I said as he tried to cut it with a knife.

"Why?" HE asked.

"You just do."

"That is absolutely barbaric!" He exclaimed. I sighed. It was going to be a long drive…

* * *

**Okay assuming I get the next chapter finished ( I am still writing it) then it will be out on Wednesday.**

**Also I need middle names for Aikatrina, so if you have any suggestions then you can PM them to me or leave them in a review.  
**


	5. Charge of the Light Brigade

**I have decided on a middle name for Aikatrina. Its Faye, which means Fairy. **

**Also there might be another update this week, assuming I get around to writing it, but I'm sick so I ought to be able to write it.  
**

**This chapter is for Arabella, the only other person who knows just how this story ends.  
**

* * *

Five  
Key – _The Wild_

**_The Conscious_**

**_The Instinct_**

_Shamrock_

_Cannon to right of them,  
Cannon to left of them,  
Cannon behind them  
Volley'd and thunder'd;  
Storm'd at with shot and shell,  
While horse and hero fell,  
They that had fought so well  
Came thro' the jaws of Death  
Back from the mouth of Hell,  
All that was left of them,  
Left of six hundred._

Charge of the Light Brigade

Shamrock

IT was hot. Well okay that much was obvious. I had taken a very wrong turn and somehow we ended up in California. While Death Valley is in California we over shot it. Which is really hard to do. So here we were coming into death valley from the California side as opposed to the Nevada side. I decided to do what everyone else was doing and blame Nico for holding the map upside down.

We saw a sign that said, "Death Valley National Park" and decided just to follow it. The road was bumpy but eventually smoother out. As we came from behind a turn I gasped. It was beautiful all the different shades of reds and browns, a winding road leading down into the valley, all of it was beautiful. Under different circumstances I would have stopped and taken a picture.

There was a road sign warning that there were twisty roads a head. I didn't slow down. "Shamrock!" Grace yelped as I took a turn doing forty, it was a small road and a steep fall.

"What?" I shrugged.

"Slow down!" She begged, as I flew around another turn.

"I have to agree with her!" Artemis piped up.

"Go faster!" Holly cried.

"NO!" The rest of the car screamed.

"Gods you guys its only Death Valley what's the worst that could happen?" I rolled my eyes.

"Exactly!" Grace yelped as I took another turn at forty. "Its Death Valley! What's the _best_ that could happen?"

"Well we could you know, live." Nico said.

"Shut up!" Lilly smacked his head. Yes ladies and gentlemen it had been like that all the way across the country. Aren't they just _adorable_. No their not and that was sarcasm.

**_Shamrock, you really should slow down!_**

_Why?_

**_Well you are about to get us all killed!_**

_Fine._

I slowed to the recommended 25 miles per hour and everyone let out a sigh of relief, we weren't flying (more literally than you think) around each turn. I sighed impatiently, at this rate it would take us at least an hour to reach Stove Pipe Wells.

On the way across the country I had learned that Artemis Fowl had no problem what so ever breaking the law, from stealing Gas to the royal jewels he had done it all. Grace had given me many stern looks along the way as if to say "Don't get any ideas" I wasn't planning on robbing the royal family but if I ever needed to I was glad I knew how to do it properly.

We finally rolled into Stove Pipe Wells at about six o'clock two days after we had left Gettysburg. We drove all day and night taking turns driving and riding. I was sure we were all just about ready to collapse. While I did want to find my mom I knew that I couldn't do that safely with a team that was about to collapse with exhaustion. We had two rooms, in the Road Runner section.

Grace, Lilly, Nico and I shared one and Artemis, Holly and Juliet took the other. There were only two beds so Nico was put on the couch, Grace had the smaller bed and Lilly and I took the larger one. There was a small single cup coffee maker in the corner and the showers were limited to five minutes each.

Grace was relieved to shower again, she could handle the crazy she told me but she didn't like to be dirty. She took the first shower and came out in a bathrobe. We all put the bathrobes on after our showers and then Grace scrubbed the dirt and grime out of our clothes in the bathtub. Lilly took an old Jump Rope and hung it between two posts and hung our clothes up to dry.

Sure they had washing machines and Driers but we didn't have two dollars of quarters to spare, we did get a few looks especially when we hung up two hunting tunics and out under clothes but we brushed it off.

Of our other three companions only Holly and Juliet bothered to follow our example and wash our clothes in the tub. Artemis decided he could just get a t-shirt in the gift shop, besides his suites were Armani and dry clean only. He didn't look too comfortable in the cotton t-shirts, I can't blame him it was 115 degrees outside.

Our clothes dried with in fifteen minutes and Grace brought them in and we got dressed. Then we went to the "Watering Hole" which was the restaurant. Our Waitress Rosie looked us over, we must have been quite a sight. Me in my black hunting tunic, Grace in her Jeans and silver hunting t-shirt, Lily in her camp clothes, Nico with his camp clothes, Artemis with his Armani suit pants and gift shop t-shirt, Juliet in exercise clothes and Holly in her floral dress. We had decided that to avoid questions Holly would be Grace's little sister, and we had stopped to get- well okay steal- her some little girl's clothes.

Holly hadn't been too happy with this arrangement but it was all we had at the moment. Rosie sat us down with a booster for Holly and we ordered. You would think the food would be complimentary since the closest town is Beatty Nevada which was about an hour away, but no the food was not complimentary.

Grace had picked up a broacher and was reading through it. We had decided that if we went at night then we should be able to get into Bad Water Basin, without being followed and then hopefully find the entrance we needed. Nico had reason to believe it would be small and very difficult to find, and very hot. Even at night Death Valley stayed a toasty 80 degrees. We bought a 24 pack of water bottles and went to see about some horses. Where we had to be it was much too hot and troublesome to take the car.

"Hello do you live here?" I asked a sandy blonde girl.

"Yep, my momma works here. What do you need?" She asked.

"Do you know where we could get some horses?" I Asked.

She raised her eyebrows. "You aren't from around here are you?"

"No we're not." I said.

"I can tell because everyone knows that you can't take horses out in Death Valley in the middle of summer." She said.

"What about at night?" I asked.

"Even then you can't." She said. "You can take a burro though."

"Do you have any burro's?" I asked.

"You should talk to my brother, Carter, he's over there." She pointed to the boy sitting against the stone wall, reading a book. "Carter!"

The boy stood and walked over to us, he couldn't have been much older than eleven. "Yeah Sophie?"

"Carter, these people would like some burro's." She said.

"You want 7 burro's?" He raised his eyebrows.

"No, we want four." I said.

"Oh, four of them I can do, but 7 no. When do you want them?" He asked.

"One hour." I said.

"You want to rent four burros in Death Valley, in the middle of June, at _night_?" He asked skeptically.

"Yep," I nodded. "Sounds about right."

"Okay, that's going to be around four hundred dollars." He said.

"Okay, where do I pick them up?" I Asked.

"My dad's in the stables, I can take you." HE said.

"Okay, I'll see you in one hour, right here." The boy, Carter nodded and we left.

Grace, Lilly and I changed into Jeans and t-shirts, so we would be slightly more comfortable. Of course Nico stayed in his plain black clothes, Artemis, Juliet and Holly were going their own way to find their friend so we went to say good bye.

I got the feeling this would be the last time we ever saw them. I didn't mind, I was ready to find my mom and to get back home to the hunt. It wasn't Orion I missed, it was my little sister and the other 2 dozen girls in my life. Thalia, Aideen, Sofia, Ariana and the rest of the hunt had become more like sisters to me then Lilly had. Most likely because I spent more time with them, but I still had that connection with Lilly.

At times it was like she was my Conscious, always chiding me, and making sure I was on the right track. Of course I can't say I did the same for her because I didn't. I didn't, just as my Instinct got me into trouble I got her into trouble. We may have been virtually polar opposites, she was level headed, I was not, she thought things through I didn't, she took her time, I rushed into things, she walked carefully and I had a tendency to hurry into things and break them, but we were still twins, and we will always have that special connection. I would do anything for her.

With Aikatrina everything was different. She was tiny and fragile, she was flawed and we weren't very close. I didn't want my sister to die though; I wanted her to live a happy long life, one that was hopefully much better than mine. One where she didn't hate herself…

Hate herself! That was it! That's what Apollo had been talking about with Grace, we had both spent long periods of time hating ourselves. I had lived with it for 16 years but she had dealt with it for over a hundred years. I couldn't imagine the intense pressure that would be, it was a wonder she was still alive. I couldn't help but wonder why she chose to be immortal. Perhaps because her other choice was an orphanage or death, or maybe because she felt the need to redeem herself.

"Grace?" I asked.

"Yes Sham?" She had obviously just been dragged from some form of deep contemplation.

"Why did you join the hunt?" I asked.

"I didn't join right away I went to an orphanage for a few weeks and the hunt got wind of is and came looking for recruits and I was the only one to leave." She whispered.

"Why did you leave?" I asked.

"Shamrock, orphanages then were a very terrible place to be, we got only what we absolutely had to eat, we had jobs in factories, which as you can imagine was hell for me, and we were expected to be so well behaved that we could spend all day being ordered around and never utter a word. Which with my temper, was the hardest thing to do, so when the opportunity came, I left." She muttered.

"Why?" I asked.

"Shamrock, would you leave?" She asked.

"Yes, I'd leave the orphanage but not if I was only going to be consumed by hatred of myself forever." I said.

"Forever can be shorter then you think." She whispered, speeding up and going into our room.

I thought about that, being immortal forever just continued to go on didn't it? It just kept going, you wouldn't die out even after civilization had, you might fade into oblivion but not 'die', but Grace could die, in battle, or technically suicide. Grace wouldn't do that though. Would she?

Considering what I'd put her through these last few months and the immense stress and pain I had caused her. It probably didn't help that I had a very bad feeling about this. Which actually could be considered good or bad, because usually my good feelings caused people to tumble off of cliffs and my bad feelings, have a tendency to go either way.

"Sham." Lilly stopped me. "Be careful."

"With what?" I asked.

"With what we're about to do, I know you and you have a bit of a knack for destroying landmarks, lives and the universe." She said.

"No I don't." I frowned.

"Shamrock, you are a hard person to be around some times, and Grace really does love you but she can't keep doing this forever, even she will crack." Lilly whispered. "All I am saying is the next few hours could be the ones where we make decisions that could change all of our lives. For better or worse."

Lilly walked ahead and I couldn't shake the feeling she knew something about Grace that I didn't. She seemed so sure, that she knew what was about to happen, and she didn't like it.

Grace had decided to take another bath so Nico, Lilly and I were watching Dance Moms and preparing our packs for the journey ahead. The man came by to drop off the mules around 10 o'clock.

"Listen, do you kids know where you're going?" He asked.

"No not really but I'm sure we can find it." I said.

"Is your mother here?" I he asked.

"She isn't." I said.

"What about your father?" He asked.

"He's um, taking care of the baby and isn't available at the moment." I said. "If you want to talk please leave a message after the tone."

"Okay then, but I really need to talk to an adult." He said.

I sighed, snapping my fingers to control the mist. "No you don't, you will leave now."

"Bye." He turned around and left, I sighed, I really did hate having to do that.

We walked out to the Burros and hoped on them, Grace pulled out a map. "Okay, it looks like we just follow the road and we'll see signs for Bad Water Basin."

"Okay then," I turned my Burro and started making my way down the road, the others following close behind. About half a mile away from Stove Pipe wells I turned back and looked. It was so small compared to the valley.

"Half a league, half a league,  
Half a league onward,  
All in the valley of Death  
Rode the six hundred.  
"Forward, the Light Brigade!  
"Charge for the guns!" he said:  
Into the valley of Death  
Rode the six hundred.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"  
Was there a man dismay'd?  
Not tho' the soldier knew  
Someone had blunder'd:  
Theirs not to make reply,  
Theirs not to reason why,  
Theirs but to do and die:  
Into the valley of Death  
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,  
Cannon to left of them,  
Cannon in front of them  
Volley'd and thunder'd;  
Storm'd at with shot and shell,  
Boldly they rode and well,  
Into the jaws of Death,  
Into the mouth of Hell  
Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,  
Flash'd as they turn'd in air,  
Sabring the gunners there,  
Charging an army, while  
All the world wonder'd:  
Plunged in the battery-smoke  
Right thro' the line they broke;  
Cossack and Russian  
Reel'd from the sabre stroke  
Shatter'd and sunder'd.  
Then they rode back, but not  
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,  
Cannon to left of them,  
Cannon behind them  
Volley'd and thunder'd;  
Storm'd at with shot and shell,  
While horse and hero fell,  
They that had fought so well  
Came thro' the jaws of Death  
Back from the mouth of Hell,  
All that was left of them,  
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?  
O the wild charge they made!  
All the world wondered.  
Honor the charge they made,  
Honor the Light Brigade,  
Noble six hundred." I said. I looked around. "What?"

"Shamrock what was that?" Grace asked.

"Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson." I said.

"I know that one, let hope our fate is better." Lilly said.

"Well you know what they say;" I turned my Burrow back to the road "Half a league, half a league, half a league onward, into the valley of death road the six hundred."

"Yeah but what about 'Boldly they rode and well, into the Jaws of death, into the mouth of hell rode the six hundred'?" Lilly asked.

"Lils I hate to point it out but the entire poem centers around their death, it doesn't really matter which passage you choose if it was a prophecy it wouldn't be a good one." I pointed out.

I turned my head back to look at Stove Pipe Wells one last time, and I did get the distinct feeling I would never see it again. We rode on through the night, I don't remember it ever being this dark, and even though it was 85 degrees there was a distinct chill in the air, a harbinger of what was to come perhaps.

Grace road up next to me and we road in silence for a few minutes, I looked over at her, she seemed troubled, but not scared.

"Shamrock, you aren't going to die on me are you?" She whispered.

"What makes you think I will die?" I asked.

"I don't know but don't act like you haven't done that before." She said.

For the first time I could place the feeling that had been nagging at me for years, my death was imminent. It was going to happen at some point but I didn't know when, of where. "I always come back don't I?"

She smiled weakly. "Yeah, you do, you were the first person to promise me you would always come back and then actually come back."

"I love you okay?" I whispered so only she could hear.

"Okay, I love you to." She whispered in reply.

We rode the rest of the way in silence, each one of us absorbed in our own thoughts about what was to come and what might become of us. Even the usually talkative Instinct was silent as a mouse. Which I suppose she could be if she wanted to be, but that wasn't the point. It was strange, I had never really felt so utterly alone.

**_Instinct, you there?_**

Silence.

**_INSTINCT!_**

_Be quiet I'm in a meeting!_

**_No you're not._**

_Fine, I'm not what do you need?_

**_Nothing, just making sure you're still there._**

_Someone's being vexatious today. _

**_Sorry. _**

_What's wrong? You never apologize?_

**_I am terrified, what if I don't come back, what if my mom isn't here? What if she's been killed._**

_A)She's a goddess she can't die and B) What makes you think I's let you die?_

**_Thanks Instinct._**

_Your welcome_

Slowly the burro's took us down the winding path of the road, and past a resort hotel thing, I would have asked Nico why we couldn't have stayed there but he would probably get aggravated with me. I found myself watching Grace, her wavy red hair blowing the wind, muscled frame holding tightly to the burro.

I wondered what her life had been like in Ireland for her. I knew she had lived with her family on a potato farm, and they had immigrated in 1910, her family had been killed in a fire and her father took the two other surviving children back to Ireland. But that was it. Other than that I knew nothing of her past. Every now and then she would wake up in the middle of the night. She thinks I don't know but I do. I often here her sitting out in front of her tent in the early hours of the morning, I catch her scent on the wind and I know she's been woken again.

The paved road slowly winds down, down, down. I suspect that the colors of these rock formations would spectacular in the early morning light, or the evening sun. Now though in the dark they just kind of looked like three hundred shades of greys, whites, and browns, all looming over us in a foreboding way. Yes I would have said chthonic forces were against us, but they always were weren't they?

I watched Nico carefully, making sure he was ahead of me so he couldn't leave us in the middle of the desert. He might seem like a good guy but in light of recent events I wouldn't out it past him to leave us in a burning forest. He was riding next to my sister, just a little too close to her for my taste, as though reading my mind Lilly reached out and pushed is burro so it would move father from her.

"It's called personal space Nico!" She snapped.

"Okay then, I'll ride over here." Nico moved about six feet away from Lilly and Lilly seemed more satisfied with this.

Grace slowed down to ride next to me. "They're quite a pair aren't they?"

"Yeah, but if we didn't need Nico to help find my mom then I would have killed him a long time ago." I said.

"I know you would have." She said.

"You cannot hurt one of my sisters without having me, to deal with." I said.

Grace laughed. "Yes because 4'11" and ninety four pounds is absolutely terrifying."

"Hey, I'm four foot elven and a half inches and ninety four pounds and six point three ounces." I scowled.

"Oh, huge difference." Grace giggled then turned serious. "But you do love both of your sisters."

"Of course I do. I just wish I had known that five days ago." I sighed.

Graced took my hand. "You did, you always have known that. You just couldn't express it."

"I know." I sighed.

"Shamrock your sister will love you no matter what you can express." Grace assured me. I nodded in silence, not wanting to tell her my worries about what was to come.

"Then if I had a hat I'd take it off to her, she's a better person then I am. " I said. Grace opened her mouth to say something but must've decided against it because she closed it and shook her head, after a few minutes she did say something.

"You're a good person." She said.

"You hesitated." I rebounded.

"I didn't mean to Shamrock, I-I just don't know what to say anymore." She whispered.

I knew what she meant, things were still awkward between us, saying what we meant often took time and thought, something I didn't have the patience for. Grace had that kind of patience though, she always had, she'd always had patience, and love. Something I hadn't always been able to give other people.

I didn't notice it before but Grace had spent years giving love to other people who needed it without ever trusting enough to get love back, even 6 year old Olivia (Don't let her size or age fool you she's 600 and completely lethal) loved her. Grace had never taken it though. Until now.

Nico checked his watch. "Midnight. It all starts at midnight."

_No, don't even think about it!_

I couldn't resist. "Tick tock."

"What?" Grace looked at me.

"Nothing, it's one of those little jokes you have to be Shamrock to get." I said.

"Oh, well then Nico what starts at midnight?" Grace asked.

"Well," Nico sighed. "between Midnight and four am we can use this entrance to the underworld, but that also means things can get out this way, which it where all the reported sightings of strange creatures comes from."

"Oh." I said. "So it's not a clock?"

Nico looked at me. "Wow you've been spending way too much time alone lately."

"Yeah." I admitted. "I have."

Grace laughed a bit. "Well at least he's been reading."

"Yeah, can't ask for much more there." Lilly laughed a little too.

Slowly we made our way down the winding path and to a parking lot, there was a long fence between the basin and the stairs so we tied the burro's up there and walked down the stairs.

The land of the basin was cracked and dry, the salt made little piles on the edges and there was a sign warning us not to walk of the path because we could crush rare snails in Death Valley. I sighed as I stepped off the board walk.

"I'm sorry snails." The others followed my lead though without apologizing to the wild life, Grace sighed and looked around, the night was clear and you could see every star in the sky.

"Welcome to the hottest place on earth." I said.

"It's beautiful." Grace whispered. I suppose she was right it had a sort of rugged beauty to it, the cracked salt floor, the only water in the area being alkali, and even then there wasn't much of it. The mountains coming up on the all sides, had we been here for different reasons I would have rather enjoyed staying and looking at the shadows of the mountains and the salt plains.

I sighed, and tried not to think about the millions of tiny organisms that spent years learning how to live here that I was crushing with every step I took. I'll be honest that hurt, because if something spent hundreds and thousands of years adapting to live somewhere and then you go killing them all of by doing something you aren't supposed to… Well you try not feeling guilty. I really tried not to think about the three people I brought with me, I was killing them off in the hundreds. I suppose my mom could replace them but I didn't even know if she'd have the power to do that.

"Step only where I do." I ordered. "I don't want to crush more organisms then necessary."

"Can anything live here?" Lilly asked. That's my sister, the one who never reads the signs.

"Yes and they've spent millions of years getting used to, and figuring out how to live here so let's play a game where we don't crush them all!" I snapped.

"Gods I didn't mean to get you in a mood." Lilly said.

"Sorry." I apologized. Grace squeezed my shoulder.

"Okay, why don't we let Nico take the lead, he knows where we're going." Grace suggested. Nico nodded and moved forward, heavily and clearly not caring if he crushed millions of tiny organisms that had spent millions of years here.

"Nico." I said.

"Yeah Sham?" Nico asked.

"Evolution hates you."

"Don't care."

"Well fine then, be that way!" I snapped. Grace patted my shoulder.

"Shamrock, he doesn't care, and that's his problem." Grace soothed.

"His problem should be that he's killing millions of microscopic organisms!" I growled.

"Hey!" Nico called. "I found it!" I walked carefully over to where Nico was standing and looked.

"I see nothing." I said. The area Nico was pointing to was a large rock and that was about it.

"Well you can't, but I can sense it. What we're going to have to do is take it at a run and if we go fast enough we won't hit the rock." Nico explained.

"Okay, first issue with that plan is we're going to crush even more snails then we already did. Second issue with that plan is that this isn't Harry Potter. There is no magic portal to transport us to Hogwarts, what there is, is a rock that if we hit we will get a knocked out at best. At worst our skulls will be crushed." I pointed out.

"Really. Watch me." Nico backed up by about 20 feet and started to run towards the rock. Just as he was supposed to hit it (Not that I would be glad if her did or anything) he disappeared.

"Well." Lilly said. "Seems legit to me."

"How do we know he didn't Shadow travel?" I Asked.

"Shamrock, its night, and can't you sense the death?" Lilly wondered.

She was right I could but that didn't mean I trusted Nico. "Okay, then I'll go first. Grace I need you to do something."

"What Shamrock?" She asked.

"I want you to go get my dad, call Apollo, his sun chariot can do night driving, make sure both of them arrive, then take them through the portal." I said.

"Okay Shamrock." Grace nodded. "Be careful." She kissed me once on the mouth and turned, to make her way to Stove pipe wells.

"Ready sis?" I asked.

"As I'll ever be." She whispered.

I backed up, looking once to the stars for the sight of the familiar constellation of Zoe Nightshade. "Thanks Zoe. For everything." I whispered.

I Dropped my gaze back to the rocks that I would be flinging myself at.

_This has to be the most suicidal thing I've done today. _

I Ran at them, picking up the speed of the hunt 20 miles an hour, here we go. 30 miles an hour, just a bit faster. 40 mile an hour, half way there. 50 miles an hour, the world is a blur. 60 miles an hour, no going back. 65 miles an hour,

**_BRACE FOR IMPACT! _**

Darkness…

* * *

**Well there you have it. We are in fast pursuit of the end of Shamrocks tale, so I shall see you again next time in... **

**Chapter 6: Sacrifice  
**


	6. Sacrafice

**Here we are, I sobbed my eyes out writing this and you'll soon see why...**

* * *

Chapter 6

Key – _The Wild_

**_The Conscious_**

**_The Instinct_**

_Shamrock_

_When can their glory fade?  
O the wild charge they made!  
All the world wondered.  
Honor the charge they made,  
Honor the Light Brigade,  
Noble six hundred._

Sacrifice

Shamrock

What happens when you get a 90 pound object, going 70 miles an hour with about nine and a half feet to come to a complete stop before hitting a wall? Go ahead think about it. Nothing can stop that fast, so inadvertently it is going to hit the wall. Now what happens when this object is human? I can give you that answer too. Pain. Lots of it. I slammed into the wall and fell over. I managed to dig some ambrosia out of my pocket and ate it. As my bones were healing Lilly came in going much slower and managed to stop.

"You hit the wall didn't you?" She asked.

"Don't tell Grace." I asked grunting as I sat up.

"I won't. I'll keep this as black mail material." She grinned helping me stand.

"Well, well, that took you long enough." The cold voice from my dreams said.

A dark figure stepped out of the shadows, his cloak pulled up over his face, a cage lowered. In it my mother lie on the floor of the cage breathing heavily.

"Mom!" Lilly cried running towards her. My mother's head snapped up.

"I warned you not to come!" She said, her eyes wild.

"You should know I don't like listening to the rules." I snapped.

"See Artemis, you're son fell for my trap." Ancteon lowered his hood reveling a pair of evil blue eyes, a mop of shaggy black hair and a scared face. "You see boy, I once saw your mother bathing in a stream as a punishment she turned me into a stag and had my own dogs kill me. I waited 2000 years to get my revenge on her. Finally I had my chance, as part of my elaborate 16 year plan I created you. Of course you were wrong, you were supposed to be like your sister, flawed beyond repair. Then of course there's the whole twin factor. I had to wait another 16 years before I could try again this one worked out perfectly. She's flawed, she's going to die, thus hurting Artemis more than ever."

"Okay, first enough you are going way too far into this monolog thing, second, what about me and Lilly?" I asked.

"I drew you here to kill you in front of your mothers eyes thus ridding the world of my mistakes." He cackled

_Okay, someone has serious social issues. _

**_Oh, gee you think?!_**

"Don't you think that's a little…" I waved my hand in the air searching for just the right word. "You know, strange. Why wait 2000 years? Why not just cause her pain right after my dad died the first time?"

He got a confused look on his face, these people I swear they never think of totally obvious thing. Must be an ancient Greek thing.

"Why would I do that?" HE asked.

"Well maybe to add salt to already existing wounds." I suggested. I flashed my hands in quick sign language to Lilly _Move to the back then attack_. She nodded, having a deaf huntress really helps out sometimes. She started to move around to the back.

"I never thought of that." He frowned.

"I can tell." I said. "Now if you'll excuse us we have some business to care for. Nico, you're sword please?"

Nico knew only stratagyn iron could kill the shade, unfortunately he was the only one here who had anything made of stratagyn iron. Nico handed it to me, just touching burned my flesh, I suppose it's the whole death vs. birth thing going on again.

I gritted my teeth in pain, and just as I was about to react Lilly jumped on Ancteon from behind. Which seriously hurt my chances of stabbing him without hurting my sister. I dove for his legs and swiped, he threw my sister off of him and brought out his own weapon. It. Was. On…

Grace

Just about the time Shamrock was challenging Ancteon Grace was arriving with Apollo, Orion and Aikatrina. Orion, took it at a run and disappeared holing tiny Aikatrina, Grace went next and Apollo followed.

Grace came to a full halt within seconds of seeing what was going on.

Shamrock was holding Nico's sword and fighting a man in a dark cloak. She could tell by the look in his eyes this wasn't his will, something else was in control of him. Something she had seen take control only once before, and that ended with the Amazon's warehouse in flames. You don't mess with his family.

Lilly

If you've never seen my brother fight you should be thanking your lucky stars. It is raw, wild and beautiful in a rugged sort of way. He's always been a bit of an undaunted in this state of mind. This was when you truly would see the wild in him, she sounded like a million things as he fought, a wolf, a bear a panther all of these things and more.

I dashed over to the cage my mother was being held in, father running up behind me, together we tried, and failed to do away with the lock.

"Move!" Apollo ordered. We stepped back and he held his hand to the lock, slowly it grew a molten red and melted in his hand. My mother fell out of the cage coughing. Apollo bent to pick her up, fire burned in his eyes. He passed my mother to Orion, who had handed Grace Aikatrina.

My sister was wailing and wriggling, the pain had come again, this time I wasn't sure if we could stop it. Grace was trying in vain to quell her, though tears were running down her face too. For Shamrock or my sister I would never know.

I turned back to the battle, Apollo had joined the fight, together they seemed to be defeating the tyrant. Shamrock's hair was flying, his silver eyes burning. Apollo was going full out Sun god, his eyes with flames hotter than the sun.

I looked next at Artemis and father, Artemis was curled in a ball, shaking and shivering. Father was coaxing Ambrosia into her mouth though I'm not sure how conscious she was.

Nico lie on the ground, apparently having been thrown against the wall by Apollo, blood trickled from a wound on his head.

The sound of the Chaos around me was nearly unbearable. I let out a choked sob, my family was in disarray. My best friend was sobbing hysterically, seeming to have lost her mind. My brother and Uncle were fighting what seemed a hopeless cause. The boy I had once loved was bleeding on the floor. My mother was a shaking, shivering mess, and my father didn't know what to do.

I couldn't take it anymore. I was going to lose my mind.

"Everyone close your eyes!" Apollo commanded.

In an instant I knew what he was going to do, I also knew Shamrock wouldn't listen, so I dived at him, tackling him to the ground. Grace hugged my sister to her chest, blocking her view and then closed her own eyes, dad drew Artemis close and shut his eyes. Nico had no issues.

In a flash of light and a blood curdling scream it was over. The man was gone and all that was left was a dark cloak on the ground…

Shamrock

I was snapped out of it by slamming against the ground and getting a mouthful of my sister's hair. Lovely isn't she? Suddenly all was quiet, well for a moment anyway then Aikatrina started wailing again. Grace was holding her and sobbing. MY mother stood shakily and went over to me.

"Thank you." She whispered.

"Anytime." I let her help me up and dusted myself off before rushing over to Grace. Apollo had removed the wailing Aikatrina from her arms and I wrapped my arms around me. I had never seen her this shattered before. She was sobbing uncontrollably on my shoulder, and clutching me as though afraid I would disappear.

"Shh, Grace calm down we're all okay." I whispered, stroking her long red hair. After a few minutes she calmed herself and looked up, her green eyes red from crying.

"I know but you frightened me so much." She whispered, stroking my face as though to make sure I was still there and alive.

"We're all here." I reassured her again.

"Well no." Apollo siad. "We are not all going to be here for much longer."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Shamrock, sis, Orion, Aikatrina is dying." He whispered. "Not only that, she has to die."

My mother dashed over. "What? Why?"

"Sis, there was never supposed to be a child of Artemis in this world. One the universe could handle, two was stretching it to the breaking point but three? There wasn't even enough to make her whole." Apollo lay my sister on a rock and shoved my mother over to Orion.

"Stop!" I yelled, my voice ragged.

"Shamrock, you don't understand she cannot remain here. She will die." He whispered, a tear running down his face. "I know Your mother won't kill her, so I h-have to."

He drew his bow, but no arrow. In his left hand appeared a very small strip of cloth. My sisters fate. He waved it in his hands and it changed to an arrow. He took aim at my sister and released the arrow.

In the next 2 seconds several things happened. I came to a realization. Only one has to die, not necessarily her, I released Grace, and she didn't try to stop me, she knew what had to be done. She understood self-sacrifice.

I leapt in front of Aikatrina, the arrow pierced my abdomen and pain blocked my vision…

Grace

She knew within seconds of Apollo knocking that arrow what would happen, she also knew Shamrock couldn't be stopped, but that didn't stop her from sobbing. The arrow changed as it hit him. It became his fate instead of Aikatrina's. He was engulfed in a brilliant golden light and a silvery shimmer began to eat away at him, coming in all directions from the arrow and leaving nothing in its path.

Within seconds he was gone, dissipated into nothingness and the light disappeared along with the arrow. Aikatrina was safe on the rock. Lady Artemis let out an Animal like cry and turned away from Aikatrina, unable to look at the child who had made her lose her son. Lilly sank to her knees sobbing quietly. Grace let the tears roll down her face.

Aikatrina was engulfed in a silvery light and then stopped crying and fell into a peaceful sleep, despite the chaos around her. Grace knew what had happened. She had become whole, what she needed to live had been removed from Shamrock's existence and given to her.

Grace moved to where she was and gathered the child in her arms. Apollo went over to Nico and healed him, then lifted Lilly from where she was sobbing and exited the underworld. Orion took Lady Artemis and Grace followed them out. Stopping when she reached the salt flats.

"Come on Grace he's not coming back." Apollo choked, as he put the others in the Sun chariot.

"The snails." Grace spoke up.

"What?" Apollo asked.

"I don't want to crush the Snails." She repeated.

"Oh, well then step where we did." Apollo shrugged.

Grace followed his orders. In rough times Grace found that was easiest, just do what people tell you and keep busy, it would distract from the pain. She climbed in the back next to Lilly and Apollo took off.

Over Death Valley the sun was just beginning to rise, and they had a few hours going at sun speed before they arrived at Camp. Aikatrina opened her eyes, and Grace felt more tears flow as she saw that one of her eyes had changed from Silver to the same metallic green Shamrock's had been when she met him. Grace clutched the child to her and let herself cry. Best to get it all out now then later.

When they arrived at Camp Apollo broke the news to everyone and the hunt instantly got out the old shroud. A quick ceremony was prepared and Grace put on her old dress that her mother had made for her, the one that was green and Sham had said made her look more Irish.

Then she bathed and dressed Aikatrina, though when the time came she didn't leave the cabin. She stayed with Aikatrina seated on her bed. The hunt returned, each one with red eyes. Lady Artemis was nowhere to be seen.

"Grace pack the baby up, we're going." He ordered.

She nodded and changed in silence, then packed her things, and the few things Shamrock had left. All Aikatrina had was the diaper bag, which he grabbed and went to join the others. Lady Artemis stood at the bonfire, burning pictures of Shamrock. Grace tucked one in her pocket, one of her and Sham, she just couldn't bear to part with it.

Then she turned and followed the rest of the hunt out of the camp and into the forest…

3rd

Had you been with the hunt you would have known things went very badly. Lady Artemis wanted almost nothing to do with her youngest daughter, and Orion struggled to raise her, Grace helped raise her. Over time she grew and matured by age 10 she stood at 4'9" and had long black curls, one silver eye and one metallic green eye. She never saw a photograph of her brother and instead of going to her mother when she was upset she turned to Grace.

Something changed the day he died, the hunt rarely spoke of him, and when they did tears were always brought on. Grace though could never shake the feeling he was out there somewhere, but she never shared this thought with anyone, though she swears that on his birthday – the day they hold his memorial service – she has seen an auburn wolf watching her from the shadows…

* * *

**Okay I am so sorry I had to do this. Here are some acknowledgements of the people who were here through it all. Because the last year had been quiet a ride. **

**Arabella, even though she was only here in the beginning so she followed him to the end.  
**

**Sapphier, who didn't know how this would end but was there anyway.  
**

**Iris, who put up with the many mornings of rambling through my eight grade year.  
**

**Shamrock, who though he may have been fictional is as real a person to me as any of you are.  
**

**Grace, who sprung to life in my imagination  
**

**All of those who have stuck with us to the end. Just hang on a little longer please...  
**

**-ToThineOwnSelfBeTrue101/ Ginny  
**


End file.
